[round 5: super shift] words are totally hard, okay? (fl/arrow cast)
title: words are totally hard, okay?
fandom: flash, arrow, agents of shield (oops?)
characters: Caitlin, Jemma, Laurel, Iris, Felicity, Sara, Ollie, Tommy, Barry, Cisco, Fitz, Thea
rating: pg
word count: ~2600
recipient/prompt: clarahow who requested college! or gradschool!au; any grouping of the
girls in class together, being roommates, unhappily being grouped together for a project without character bashing or explicit violence
setting: college au; everyone is alive and happy
Caitlin was enjoying her second year of university a lot more than she thought. Sure, she was taking a handful of extra classes and had a mandatory meeting with the guidance counselor to ensure that she didn’t have any lingering effects from the stress, but she was totally and completely confident and happy and everything was working out perfectly.
“No?! No no no no nooo!” Caitlin threw herself into the uncomfortable cafeteria stool across the table from her best friend, and the only person who seemed to understand anything.
“Wassamattercat?” Jemma said with her mouthful of something that smelled spicy and cheesy and was definitely from that little Mexican place around the corner that she was obsessed with and not the grey sludge that they seemed to serve every day around here.
“Do you ever wake up in the morning and everything is just… wrong?!”
Jemma turned the page of an old edition of The Journal of Experimental Biology and hummed. She probably wasn’t paying full attention - but that’s what happens when you are a double Bio-Chem major working side-by-side with a brilliant engineering expert on super-secret projects. Not that Caitlin could really be all that angry, there may or may not have been a lunch (just the previous day) when she interrupted Jemma’s rant about her roommate to point out a particularly fascinating passage in the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering that had led to an all-night debate between Cisco, Fitz, Jemma, and herself - all thoughts of roommates pushed to the background.
Caitlin face-planted on her pile of books and groaned, “Why do we have to take lower division general classes at all? Can’t we just … get out of them on virtue of being science savants?”
“We are hardly savants,” Jemma murmured.
Caitlin just groaned again. She’d like to wallow in some chocolate ice cream and watch old episodes of Stargate SG-1 until morning, but she had to go to the library. To the Humanities library. Clear across campus. And first she had to stop by her dorm and … ugh.
Jemma closed her journal and tapped Caitlin on the head, “What’s up?”
Caitlin rolled her head to the right so she could look up at Jemma without actually using very much energy, “I hate my roommate.”
Jemma wrinkled her nose, “Is she as bad as mine? Is yours a criminal justice major with a frat boy boyfriend and a serious drinking problem?”
“Is yours a communications major with a skinny boy toy that never leaves the room and pines over her every movement?”
“Does yours interrupt your studying to rant about the injustices of the world and how being a science major isn’t the best use of your talents?”
“Does yours watch sappy documentaries about the Middle East and try to convince you to sign up for the Peace Corps?”
Jemma cracked a grin, “They sound perfect for each other.”
Caitlin brightened, “Maybe we can somehow set them up and make it their idea to switch rooms so we can move in together.”
“Laurel will never agree to switch dorms, we’re too close to the frat houses now and you’re way at the other end.”
“Wait - Laurel?” Caitlin sat up, brows furrowed, “Laurel Lance?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Caitlin looked at her watch, “How particular is she about people being on time to group study sessions?”
Jemma’s eyes widened, “Like she gets so hyper about people being late.”
Caitlin stood up frantically, gathering up the books and papers she had thrown on the table, “I’m so late!”
As she hurried to the door, Jemma’s soft voice came from behind her, “Run!” Arms full of books and legs flashing wildly beneath her, Caitlin pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and took a deep breath. She needed help. She was not too proud to admit that this group project for her English class was going to be a disaster if the three of them were left to their own devices.
Caitlin: hey?
Iris: HI roomie! ☺☺ What’s up?
Caitlin: can I ask a favor?
Iris: I already ate the last peanut butter brownie barry brought yesterday
Caitlin: no. for a group project
Iris: I LOVE GROUP PROJECTS!
Caitlin: come to the library?
Iris: the stuffy science one or the other one?
Caitlin: the other one
Iris: already here! chatting with some friends! ☺
Iris: hey wait r u supposed to meet laurel?
Caitlin: … yes?
Iris: THAT’S WHO I’M WITH!
Caitlin: perfect
Iris: Kismet!
Caitlin sighed. Of course they already know each other.
As she sullenly walked up the steps to the library, she nearly crashed into skinny little Barry Allen - constant mooner about her dorm room with his big puppy eyes and too-long everything.
“Cat!”
“Caitlin.”
“What are you doing on this side of the campus? I didn’t think you ever left your lab.”
Caitlin shrugged, “I leave sometimes.”
Barry smiled brightly, “Hey Iris says you are like a genius and if you are friends with Fitz-Simmons then that’s probably true.” Caitlin blushed and Barry just smiled a bit wider. “Anyway, can I bring over something that I’ve been working on? You’re a bit more advanced in the program than I am and I’d love a second pair of eyes.” At Caitlin’s confused stutter, Barry bounced a little on his heels, “You’re the best!”
He was gone before Caitlin could formulate any words.
Iris was holding court with the two girls from Caitlin’s English class, leaning into the scary goth one and giggling like they were old friends from childhood.
“Cat!”
“Caitlin.”
Iris jumped up and practically twirled Caitlin over to the table she had commandeered for their group, “Felicity has like the best idea for your project. And isn’t this awesome? It will actually help me with a survey that I have to do for my senior thesis!”
Caitlin sat down, breathless, her books in Iris’ hands and the two other girls now looking at her curiously, “Wait. What?”
The goth girl looked up from her laptop, still furiously typing even as she spoke, “Linguistics. I’m making an online survey of common phrases mixed with more … I guess you could say technical lingo in different fields of study.”
Laurel leaned over the desk, “So we really need all of us. Our paper will be on cross-major collaboration.”
Caitlin looked up at their bright eyes, “That’s… not a bad idea, actually.”
“Hopefully this will help people network. Set up senior Bio majors with undergrads who need tutors, or Bio majors with English majors to help each other with different assignments,” Felicity bit her lip and squinted at her screen. “This campus doesn’t really have a good tutoring center… or a tutoring center at all.”
“So now we’re changing the world?” Caitlin muttered under her breath. Her brain started to swirl with all the more interesting things she could be doing in the lab with Jemma or Cisco. Or even what scrawny little Barry Allen wanted.
Iris looked up from the other side of the table where she was whispering to Laurel and laughing under her breath, “And just think, this was all your idea Caitlin!”
She didn’t know whether or not to be surprised that for the first time that year, Iris had used her full name, or that they were somehow attributing this huge undertaking (that was bound to fail) to her.
“My idea?”
“Well yeah,” Laurel rolled her eyes. Sometimes Caitlin could see the future lawyer underneath the bravado and other times all she could see was the party girl with perfect hair. Right at that moment, Laurel somehow managed to be both at once. “You asked Iris for help on this project. And we started talking.”
“About how I couldn’t have passed web design last term without Felicity’s help and how I helped you with that wacky Religious Studies course. Like just imagine what would happen if you and Jemma had been roomies?”
“Or the two of us,” Laurel pointed between herself and Iris. “I couldn’t have passed my Physics class if it hadn’t been for Jemma. She helped me cram before my midterm and I think I learned more from her than the professor.”
“I bet she acted like it was a hilarious game, too. Instead of something super fucking difficult,” Felicity was smiling even if her eyes never left the screen.
“She said that you guys were playing a board game all night once,” Caitlin giggled. “I thought that was weird.”
“It wasn’t a board game, it was the periodic table,” Laurel smiled back, wide and silly.
“But what about people who end up with a roommate they don’t get along with as well as we get along? Or with someone in their same major? Then they are always with people in their major, only making friends with people with the same interests…” Iris paused. “I mean, that doesn’t always happen. But the rate of failure coming out of Bio 1 alone is enough to raise concern.”
“Okay we are just about ready for you three to take over,” Felicity interrupted.
Laurel glanced down at her phone, “I’ve got Sara and Thea on hand just in case.” At Caitlin’s confused expression, she explained, “My little sister Sara is a Liberal Studies major and Thea is Ollie’s baby sister. She’s like fourteen. Brilliant as hell - but fourteen.”
“What are we doing exactly?”
Iris jumped a little in her chair excitedly, “It’ll look just like a basic vocabulary exam, but it will focus on different fields of study. So at the end, it will tell you - hey, you got an 80% in Humanities, but a 10% in the Sciences-”
“Except it can also be more specific: you got a 100% in blogspeak, but a 73% in academic writing,” Felicity interjected.
“And then it will ask you if you want to be paired with tutor - or meet with someone who scored higher in the things that you scored lower in,” Laurel typed something into her phone and smiled. “It will also give you the option to offer tutoring services to people who want it.”
“That’s…” Caitlin leaned forward, “That’s actually really amazing!”
Felicity laughed, “It will be if it works.”
“It will work,” Iris’ natural enthusiasm had no room for Felicity’s doubts.
“You know,” Caitlin hedged. “This would be really neat for within major fields. Like… it’s really great setting up Science brains with Theatre gurus - but what if there was something for the stuff in-between?”
“A separate test for every major?” Laurel frowned.
“Like math tests and more specific vocabulary skills!” Caitlin actually felt excited for the first time.
“Woah there,” Felicity touched her arm gently and smiled. “Let’s do this one step at a time, okay Wonder Woman?”
“Yeah,” Iris laughed. “Let’s just make sure this works first, kay?”
Caitlin squirmed a little. Iris and Laurel began talking about something else, heads low and close together. Felicity seemed to be typing way too fast to just be doing code work, but Caitlin really wasn’t a computer person per say… it was just that she kept seeming to giggle to herself. She wanted to say something about how Felicity had the makings of a mad genius sitting in front of her with a spread of computers giggling maniacally in a lab somewhere - and then she looked over at Laurel and Iris, heads bent low. They could either be figuring out world peace or talking about shoes for all she knew. They were all, the four of them, the makings of some kind of bizarre super villain team.
Iris looked up, “Oh please, Caitlin. We’d so be the vigilantes that everyone thinks are supervillains, but it’s only because the media portrays us that way.”
“Working for the law, but against the law,” Laurel quipped.
A girl with blonde hair and a wide face and sparkling eyes in yoga gear plopped down next to Laurel and threw her arm around her, “Daydreaming about becoming Batman again?”
“Ladies and ladies, my sister Sara,” Laurel waved to them like a model on The Price is Right.
Caitlin smiled to herself as the group chattered loudly about this and that and pulled out the assignment sheet from their English class. She hadn’t really looked at it yet and…
“Guys?”
Sara started imitating Ollie and Tommy flirting with girls at a bar, much to everyone’s delight. Caitlin cleared her throat loudly, “Hey guys?!”
“Guys shut up! What is it Caitlin,” Felicity shouted at them, causing a few people to look over at them angrily. Sara flipped them off, standing up to flip her chair around so that she could straddle it, putting her elbows on the back and then looking at Caitlin expectantly.
Caitlin looked down at the paper in her hand, “The assignment says we’re supposed to interview each other and write an essay about the interview.”
Sara snapped her gum loudly. A group of serious-looking guys in the corner muttered something and she smiled at them broadly.
Iris snatched the paper from her hand, “Perfect! That is so easy!”
“Hey so are you guys almost ready to start making questions, or … actually…” Felicity clicked around on her laptop. “I vote we move somewhere that has pizza-”
“And beer!” Sara interrupted.
“No beer,” Laurel shook her head.
Sara stuck her tongue out at her sister.
“Let’s meet Barry and Cisco at the Firehouse,” Iris stood up, gathering Caitlin’s books in her arms.
Felicity slapped her laptop lid down with grin, “Sounds good to me.”
Caitlin looked up at them, confused, “But what about the paper? And the interviews? And…”
Laurel shrugged, “We can interview each other anytime, the paper isn’t due for another two weeks.”
“And the … the test thing?” Caitlin stood up slowly.
Felicity slung her arm over her shoulder, “I’m so glad you thought of it! It’s such a good idea.”
“You know what I was thinking…” Iris pulled Felicity away and the two walked away, leading them out of the library.
Laurel nudged Caitlin with her elbow, “You should tell Jemma to meet us for dinner. She should get out of that lab and hang out with us.”
“Oh… um…”
“You have to tell me where you got this Einstein shirt,” Sara put her arm around Caitlin’s waist. “It’s super cute.”
Laurel rolled her eyes, “Stop flirting, you shameless hussy.”
Sara leaned down to whisper in Caitlin’s ear, “I love flirting with Laurel’s friends. It makes her so uncomfortable.”
Caitlin started to protest that she wasn’t Laurel’s friend, but by that time they were outside and Cisco and Barry had joined them. In a whirl, she suddenly found herself embroiled in a conversation with Barry about his side research project. By the time she thought to txt Jemma, they had already reached the restaurant.
Caitlin: come meet me for pizza
Jemma: meeting laurel for dinner
Caitlin: that’s who I’m with!
Jemma: I guess the group project didn’t go as badly as you thought it would?
Caitlin: bring fitz. barry and cisco are here
Caitlin: I’ll let laurel tell you about it
Jemma: can’t wait!
Jemma: I needed a break from the lab
Caitlin looked up at the group of smiling, giggling people around her. Tommy had dragged little Thea along and was currently teaching Iris how to fishtail Thea’s long hair, Cisco giving pointers over his shoulder, Thea sitting patiently in his lap, arguing with Sara over what to order. Ollie and Felicity were discussing (arguing?) hacker politics, while Laurel and Barry giggled over the beer list. Someone across the room shouted, words are like totally hard, okay?! and Laurel caught her eye across the table, winking playfully before turning back to Barry.
Caitlin: yeah
Caitlin: me too
Jemma: omw!
fandom: flash, arrow, agents of shield (oops?)
characters: Caitlin, Jemma, Laurel, Iris, Felicity, Sara, Ollie, Tommy, Barry, Cisco, Fitz, Thea
rating: pg
word count: ~2600
recipient/prompt: clarahow who requested college! or gradschool!au; any grouping of the
girls in class together, being roommates, unhappily being grouped together for a project without character bashing or explicit violence
setting: college au; everyone is alive and happy
Caitlin was enjoying her second year of university a lot more than she thought. Sure, she was taking a handful of extra classes and had a mandatory meeting with the guidance counselor to ensure that she didn’t have any lingering effects from the stress, but she was totally and completely confident and happy and everything was working out perfectly.
“No?! No no no no nooo!” Caitlin threw herself into the uncomfortable cafeteria stool across the table from her best friend, and the only person who seemed to understand anything.
“Wassamattercat?” Jemma said with her mouthful of something that smelled spicy and cheesy and was definitely from that little Mexican place around the corner that she was obsessed with and not the grey sludge that they seemed to serve every day around here.
“Do you ever wake up in the morning and everything is just… wrong?!”
Jemma turned the page of an old edition of The Journal of Experimental Biology and hummed. She probably wasn’t paying full attention - but that’s what happens when you are a double Bio-Chem major working side-by-side with a brilliant engineering expert on super-secret projects. Not that Caitlin could really be all that angry, there may or may not have been a lunch (just the previous day) when she interrupted Jemma’s rant about her roommate to point out a particularly fascinating passage in the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering that had led to an all-night debate between Cisco, Fitz, Jemma, and herself - all thoughts of roommates pushed to the background.
Caitlin face-planted on her pile of books and groaned, “Why do we have to take lower division general classes at all? Can’t we just … get out of them on virtue of being science savants?”
“We are hardly savants,” Jemma murmured.
Caitlin just groaned again. She’d like to wallow in some chocolate ice cream and watch old episodes of Stargate SG-1 until morning, but she had to go to the library. To the Humanities library. Clear across campus. And first she had to stop by her dorm and … ugh.
Jemma closed her journal and tapped Caitlin on the head, “What’s up?”
Caitlin rolled her head to the right so she could look up at Jemma without actually using very much energy, “I hate my roommate.”
Jemma wrinkled her nose, “Is she as bad as mine? Is yours a criminal justice major with a frat boy boyfriend and a serious drinking problem?”
“Is yours a communications major with a skinny boy toy that never leaves the room and pines over her every movement?”
“Does yours interrupt your studying to rant about the injustices of the world and how being a science major isn’t the best use of your talents?”
“Does yours watch sappy documentaries about the Middle East and try to convince you to sign up for the Peace Corps?”
Jemma cracked a grin, “They sound perfect for each other.”
Caitlin brightened, “Maybe we can somehow set them up and make it their idea to switch rooms so we can move in together.”
“Laurel will never agree to switch dorms, we’re too close to the frat houses now and you’re way at the other end.”
“Wait - Laurel?” Caitlin sat up, brows furrowed, “Laurel Lance?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Caitlin looked at her watch, “How particular is she about people being on time to group study sessions?”
Jemma’s eyes widened, “Like she gets so hyper about people being late.”
Caitlin stood up frantically, gathering up the books and papers she had thrown on the table, “I’m so late!”
As she hurried to the door, Jemma’s soft voice came from behind her, “Run!” Arms full of books and legs flashing wildly beneath her, Caitlin pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and took a deep breath. She needed help. She was not too proud to admit that this group project for her English class was going to be a disaster if the three of them were left to their own devices.
Caitlin: hey?
Iris: HI roomie! ☺☺ What’s up?
Caitlin: can I ask a favor?
Iris: I already ate the last peanut butter brownie barry brought yesterday
Caitlin: no. for a group project
Iris: I LOVE GROUP PROJECTS!
Caitlin: come to the library?
Iris: the stuffy science one or the other one?
Caitlin: the other one
Iris: already here! chatting with some friends! ☺
Iris: hey wait r u supposed to meet laurel?
Caitlin: … yes?
Iris: THAT’S WHO I’M WITH!
Caitlin: perfect
Iris: Kismet!
Caitlin sighed. Of course they already know each other.
As she sullenly walked up the steps to the library, she nearly crashed into skinny little Barry Allen - constant mooner about her dorm room with his big puppy eyes and too-long everything.
“Cat!”
“Caitlin.”
“What are you doing on this side of the campus? I didn’t think you ever left your lab.”
Caitlin shrugged, “I leave sometimes.”
Barry smiled brightly, “Hey Iris says you are like a genius and if you are friends with Fitz-Simmons then that’s probably true.” Caitlin blushed and Barry just smiled a bit wider. “Anyway, can I bring over something that I’ve been working on? You’re a bit more advanced in the program than I am and I’d love a second pair of eyes.” At Caitlin’s confused stutter, Barry bounced a little on his heels, “You’re the best!”
He was gone before Caitlin could formulate any words.
Iris was holding court with the two girls from Caitlin’s English class, leaning into the scary goth one and giggling like they were old friends from childhood.
“Cat!”
“Caitlin.”
Iris jumped up and practically twirled Caitlin over to the table she had commandeered for their group, “Felicity has like the best idea for your project. And isn’t this awesome? It will actually help me with a survey that I have to do for my senior thesis!”
Caitlin sat down, breathless, her books in Iris’ hands and the two other girls now looking at her curiously, “Wait. What?”
The goth girl looked up from her laptop, still furiously typing even as she spoke, “Linguistics. I’m making an online survey of common phrases mixed with more … I guess you could say technical lingo in different fields of study.”
Laurel leaned over the desk, “So we really need all of us. Our paper will be on cross-major collaboration.”
Caitlin looked up at their bright eyes, “That’s… not a bad idea, actually.”
“Hopefully this will help people network. Set up senior Bio majors with undergrads who need tutors, or Bio majors with English majors to help each other with different assignments,” Felicity bit her lip and squinted at her screen. “This campus doesn’t really have a good tutoring center… or a tutoring center at all.”
“So now we’re changing the world?” Caitlin muttered under her breath. Her brain started to swirl with all the more interesting things she could be doing in the lab with Jemma or Cisco. Or even what scrawny little Barry Allen wanted.
Iris looked up from the other side of the table where she was whispering to Laurel and laughing under her breath, “And just think, this was all your idea Caitlin!”
She didn’t know whether or not to be surprised that for the first time that year, Iris had used her full name, or that they were somehow attributing this huge undertaking (that was bound to fail) to her.
“My idea?”
“Well yeah,” Laurel rolled her eyes. Sometimes Caitlin could see the future lawyer underneath the bravado and other times all she could see was the party girl with perfect hair. Right at that moment, Laurel somehow managed to be both at once. “You asked Iris for help on this project. And we started talking.”
“About how I couldn’t have passed web design last term without Felicity’s help and how I helped you with that wacky Religious Studies course. Like just imagine what would happen if you and Jemma had been roomies?”
“Or the two of us,” Laurel pointed between herself and Iris. “I couldn’t have passed my Physics class if it hadn’t been for Jemma. She helped me cram before my midterm and I think I learned more from her than the professor.”
“I bet she acted like it was a hilarious game, too. Instead of something super fucking difficult,” Felicity was smiling even if her eyes never left the screen.
“She said that you guys were playing a board game all night once,” Caitlin giggled. “I thought that was weird.”
“It wasn’t a board game, it was the periodic table,” Laurel smiled back, wide and silly.
“But what about people who end up with a roommate they don’t get along with as well as we get along? Or with someone in their same major? Then they are always with people in their major, only making friends with people with the same interests…” Iris paused. “I mean, that doesn’t always happen. But the rate of failure coming out of Bio 1 alone is enough to raise concern.”
“Okay we are just about ready for you three to take over,” Felicity interrupted.
Laurel glanced down at her phone, “I’ve got Sara and Thea on hand just in case.” At Caitlin’s confused expression, she explained, “My little sister Sara is a Liberal Studies major and Thea is Ollie’s baby sister. She’s like fourteen. Brilliant as hell - but fourteen.”
“What are we doing exactly?”
Iris jumped a little in her chair excitedly, “It’ll look just like a basic vocabulary exam, but it will focus on different fields of study. So at the end, it will tell you - hey, you got an 80% in Humanities, but a 10% in the Sciences-”
“Except it can also be more specific: you got a 100% in blogspeak, but a 73% in academic writing,” Felicity interjected.
“And then it will ask you if you want to be paired with tutor - or meet with someone who scored higher in the things that you scored lower in,” Laurel typed something into her phone and smiled. “It will also give you the option to offer tutoring services to people who want it.”
“That’s…” Caitlin leaned forward, “That’s actually really amazing!”
Felicity laughed, “It will be if it works.”
“It will work,” Iris’ natural enthusiasm had no room for Felicity’s doubts.
“You know,” Caitlin hedged. “This would be really neat for within major fields. Like… it’s really great setting up Science brains with Theatre gurus - but what if there was something for the stuff in-between?”
“A separate test for every major?” Laurel frowned.
“Like math tests and more specific vocabulary skills!” Caitlin actually felt excited for the first time.
“Woah there,” Felicity touched her arm gently and smiled. “Let’s do this one step at a time, okay Wonder Woman?”
“Yeah,” Iris laughed. “Let’s just make sure this works first, kay?”
Caitlin squirmed a little. Iris and Laurel began talking about something else, heads low and close together. Felicity seemed to be typing way too fast to just be doing code work, but Caitlin really wasn’t a computer person per say… it was just that she kept seeming to giggle to herself. She wanted to say something about how Felicity had the makings of a mad genius sitting in front of her with a spread of computers giggling maniacally in a lab somewhere - and then she looked over at Laurel and Iris, heads bent low. They could either be figuring out world peace or talking about shoes for all she knew. They were all, the four of them, the makings of some kind of bizarre super villain team.
Iris looked up, “Oh please, Caitlin. We’d so be the vigilantes that everyone thinks are supervillains, but it’s only because the media portrays us that way.”
“Working for the law, but against the law,” Laurel quipped.
A girl with blonde hair and a wide face and sparkling eyes in yoga gear plopped down next to Laurel and threw her arm around her, “Daydreaming about becoming Batman again?”
“Ladies and ladies, my sister Sara,” Laurel waved to them like a model on The Price is Right.
Caitlin smiled to herself as the group chattered loudly about this and that and pulled out the assignment sheet from their English class. She hadn’t really looked at it yet and…
“Guys?”
Sara started imitating Ollie and Tommy flirting with girls at a bar, much to everyone’s delight. Caitlin cleared her throat loudly, “Hey guys?!”
“Guys shut up! What is it Caitlin,” Felicity shouted at them, causing a few people to look over at them angrily. Sara flipped them off, standing up to flip her chair around so that she could straddle it, putting her elbows on the back and then looking at Caitlin expectantly.
Caitlin looked down at the paper in her hand, “The assignment says we’re supposed to interview each other and write an essay about the interview.”
Sara snapped her gum loudly. A group of serious-looking guys in the corner muttered something and she smiled at them broadly.
Iris snatched the paper from her hand, “Perfect! That is so easy!”
“Hey so are you guys almost ready to start making questions, or … actually…” Felicity clicked around on her laptop. “I vote we move somewhere that has pizza-”
“And beer!” Sara interrupted.
“No beer,” Laurel shook her head.
Sara stuck her tongue out at her sister.
“Let’s meet Barry and Cisco at the Firehouse,” Iris stood up, gathering Caitlin’s books in her arms.
Felicity slapped her laptop lid down with grin, “Sounds good to me.”
Caitlin looked up at them, confused, “But what about the paper? And the interviews? And…”
Laurel shrugged, “We can interview each other anytime, the paper isn’t due for another two weeks.”
“And the … the test thing?” Caitlin stood up slowly.
Felicity slung her arm over her shoulder, “I’m so glad you thought of it! It’s such a good idea.”
“You know what I was thinking…” Iris pulled Felicity away and the two walked away, leading them out of the library.
Laurel nudged Caitlin with her elbow, “You should tell Jemma to meet us for dinner. She should get out of that lab and hang out with us.”
“Oh… um…”
“You have to tell me where you got this Einstein shirt,” Sara put her arm around Caitlin’s waist. “It’s super cute.”
Laurel rolled her eyes, “Stop flirting, you shameless hussy.”
Sara leaned down to whisper in Caitlin’s ear, “I love flirting with Laurel’s friends. It makes her so uncomfortable.”
Caitlin started to protest that she wasn’t Laurel’s friend, but by that time they were outside and Cisco and Barry had joined them. In a whirl, she suddenly found herself embroiled in a conversation with Barry about his side research project. By the time she thought to txt Jemma, they had already reached the restaurant.
Caitlin: come meet me for pizza
Jemma: meeting laurel for dinner
Caitlin: that’s who I’m with!
Jemma: I guess the group project didn’t go as badly as you thought it would?
Caitlin: bring fitz. barry and cisco are here
Caitlin: I’ll let laurel tell you about it
Jemma: can’t wait!
Jemma: I needed a break from the lab
Caitlin looked up at the group of smiling, giggling people around her. Tommy had dragged little Thea along and was currently teaching Iris how to fishtail Thea’s long hair, Cisco giving pointers over his shoulder, Thea sitting patiently in his lap, arguing with Sara over what to order. Ollie and Felicity were discussing (arguing?) hacker politics, while Laurel and Barry giggled over the beer list. Someone across the room shouted, words are like totally hard, okay?! and Laurel caught her eye across the table, winking playfully before turning back to Barry.
Caitlin: yeah
Caitlin: me too
Jemma: omw!