Chapter Text
By the time Felicity had landed, grabbed her bags and a taxi and made it to the registration office to get her housing assignment, it was closing time. The clock read 5:02 pm, and not wanting to be rude but also desperately NOT wanting to have to find a hotel to sleep in for the night, she banged on the door and crossed her fingers that someone would take pity on her and give her the address to her student apartment and her keys.
Her flight had been delayed by 2 hours, not due to any weather troubles since the weather from Las Vegas to Boston was always fine in the summer. Something mechanical… that she didn’t really want to think about too much. It had been a long day, really just a long summer, and she was itching to get settled back into the routine of school and classes and burying her head in code.
She rarely saw eye to eye with her mom, and while the summer hadn’t been full of conflict, it was emotionally draining to constantly deflect her questions about boys and friends and her “frumpy” wardrobe. So, in the manner she’d perfected in high school, Felicity kept her head down and worked extra hours at her summer job -- consulting for a security company that catered to Las Vegas’ elite.
Now she was back in Boston and thank GOD someone was going to answer her knocks.
“Yes?” asked the kindly looking middle aged woman who opened the door.
“Um, hi, I’m Felicity Smoak and I’m so sorry I’m late. I rushed here as fast as I could. I was supposed to pick up my housing assignment from MIT for my Off Campus apartment. I think it will be really quick, I just need to grab my keys from you,” Felicity plowed through her monologue as quickly and kindly as she could. Her cab was still idling at the curb and she desperately hoped this whole ordeal didn’t end up costing her all the money she’d saved up over the summer in cab fare.
“Ok, I was just headed out, but let me check the log really quickly,” the woman opened the door wide to let her in and Felicity signaled to the cabbie that she’d just be a minute.
The woman flicked through her computer screen and pulled up Felicity’s housing information.
“Ok, what was the last name again?”
“Smoak, spelled S-M-O-A-K,” Felicity offered.
“Oh, ok here it is. I think. Um, it has the first name wrong though, but it’s the only Smoak. It looks like you requested housing through the multi-school apartment finder. We have you placed in a two bedroom in Cambridge. It looks like your roommate checked in earlier this afternoon. Thomas Merlyn. He picked up his keys, so let me just grab your set.”
The woman stood to go grab the keys, and Felicity’s brain finally caught up with what she’d heard. Shaking off her confusion she called out, “Wait, did you say ‘Thomas’? But, I’m sure that’s a mistake. Aren’t the student apartments always same sex? Shouldn’t I have a female roommate?”
With her head tilted, the woman made her way back to the computers, clicking through, till she saw the housing order. “Hmmm, well, yes, you should have been put with another girl. But the initial order that was put in for you in the system says it’s for a ‘Felm’ Smoak? I’m not sure what that is? I guess the system wasn’t sure either, so you were sorted into the male housing group.”
Felicity came behind the desk to look over the woman’s shoulder. Letting out a deep sigh, Felicity saw where the glitch had happened. Somehow her first and middle name had been fused into some strange, sexless name. Felm. Blerg! Why do things like this always happen to her? To be honest, she should have taken time over the summer to hack into their system and check that everything was set up to her satisfaction, but she’d been busy at home and, stupidly, trusted that something as basic as a housing request couldn’t be messed up.
Looking over the form, Felicity saw the details of her new roommate. Thomas Merlyn, age 21, senior at Harvard. Hmmmmm. Well, they’ll have to sort this out, but seeing as it was after 5 p.m. on Friday it very likely would have to wait until Monday.
Huffing another deep sigh, Felicity walked back to the front of the woman’s desk. “Well, ok, I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of options for me since it’s already after closing time on Friday. Right?” Felicity asked, hopeful that the woman would disagree and magically produce keys to another apartment without 21 year old male roommates.
“Yeah, we were really booked up this year. It was a real squeeze getting everyone in, and honestly we still have a few students on the waitlist. We have apartments opening up for them, we think, but some of them might not get moved in until after the semester starts. I can add you to the waitlist, but until Monday there is absolutely nothing I can do to help you.” With a look of sympathy, the woman stood to gather Felicity’s keys as she handed over the envelope with all the housing details.
Felicity thanked her and headed back to her waiting taxi. Well, this should be interesting. Although, given how well she’d fit in with her peers in the dorms at MIT, she couldn’t possibly have a worse time of it with this Thomas Merlyn. If only she hadn’t already skipped ahead so much in school, it might have made it easier for her to fit in. Sure, college had been different from high school, and she definitely had more academic competition at MIT, but even here she was faced with a lot of petty junk that she couldn’t bring herself to care about. If she had to leave her housing up to the fates instead of living with a friend, she supposed something like this was bound to happen. How bad could it be, anyway?
Felicity stopped her musings as the cab pulled up in front of the apartment building. She had to admit, it looked a lot nicer than the dorms she’d been in for the last two years. The brownstone sat midway up a hill and as she paid the driver and wheeled her bags to the door she could see that it housed four separate apartments. Should be nice. Cozy even. And it had to be quieter than the dorms. She slid her key into the front door and took a fortifying breath before beginning to drag her bags up the stairs. Here goes nothing.