Chapter Text
“Sara? You’re going to be late. You’ve got to take the bus.”
Sara groaned, lifting her head from the pillow. Laurel knocked again, talking to her through a crack in the door. “Sara?”
“’m getting up.” Sara mumbled, pulling herself up, kicking aside the laundry on the floor to stand up. She caught a glimpse of the time on her phone – shit, shit, shit -
When she was dressed, Sara stumbled down the stairs to get a bagel, tying her shoes whilst it toasted. Her dad was sat at the kitchen table, half awake, reading a newspaper. Sara looked up when Laurel came in.
“Uh - hey, you’re not leaving until tomorrow, right?” She asked, her voice awkward, and Laurel nodded.
“Yes. Early tomorrow.”
“Okay, cool, I – uh – I gotta go – Bye, Dad -”
Quentin nodded, calling out to her to have a good day as Sara grabbed the bagel and her backpack, pulling her skateboard from the doorway and pushing off, whistling down the street whilst stuffing the bagel in her mouth.
She only just made the bus, and she moved to the back, slipping her headphones from her backpack and clicking her playlist on, and watched as the bus rolled by familiar streets. It had been three years since she’d joined Star City Academy, the best private school in the city, scraping enough scholarship funding together to follow her sister, turning up on her first day in her sister’s hand-me-down blazer and boundless energy. Now she was entering her junior year, with a pit in her stomach at the thought of returning after the summer.
Sara had slipped through the gates and just reached her locker when she saw him – Oliver Queen, laughing with his friends, and her heart dropped, making herself small as she dropped her books down into her locker and swung her bag on her back. She jumped when she closed her locker to find someone standing there.
“Behrad!” She said, and Behrad grinned. His hair had gotten longer over the summer, and Sara was sure he wouldn’t stop until it was longer than his sisters. “What are you doing?”
“Just excited to start another year!” Behrad said, as Sara slipped her locker key back in her pocket. “What’s your first class? Calculus?”
“I think so.” Sara muttered, trying to remember the timetable she’d stuffed in her bag that morning.
“Nate and Charlie have that. Me and Z are in World History all morning.” Sara nodded, she could see Zari looking in her own locker, applying lipstick in the mirror as Behrad complained about the World History syllabus. Nate and Charlie appeared then, Nate running over to give Sara a hug, whilst Charlie just laughed.
“You ready?” Nate asked, and Sara nodded, but not before she’d looked back over her shoulder.
Oliver was gone, and her breathing eased slightly.
///
After a boring morning filled with way more math than Sara could handle, she made her way to the cafeteria for lunch, taking up residence at their usual table, where Sara began to wolf down her burrito and salad. When Zari raised her eyebrow, Sara shrugged.
“I’m hungry, okay? I was late.”
“You’re never late – Laurel sleep in?” Nate asked, taking a bite of his own sandwich.
“No, I have to get the bus. Laurel’s leaving for college tomorrow.” Sara groaned.
“But she’s only a year older than us?” Nate said, confused, and Sara shrugged.
“She skipped 5th grade; she’s going early.”
“Whoa.” Behrad said. “That’s wild. So it’ll just be you and your dad?”
“We’ll be fine.” Sara said. Her friends knew part of the story, that her dad had always had a problem with alcohol, but he hadn’t had anything to drink in over a year. They would be fine. “How was calculus for you guys?”
Charlie sighed, and they started to rant about the lesson, before the conversation dissolved into discussing their upcoming classes, whilst Sara finished her lunch.
Nate leant towards her. “Hey, Sara? Y’know that show you made me watch?”
“Time Raiders?” She asked, and Nate nodded.
“Yeah, that one. I think one of the actors goes to our school now.”
Sara choked, coughing violently, and suddenly all eyes were on her.
“Who?” Sara said, gasping between coughs.
“The girl – the clone, Lorna?”
“Luna?”
“Yeah, her.”
“You saw her? Here? At Star City?” Sara said, as Nate nodded, more focused on his sandwich.
“Yeah. She was in the office when I went to return the keys from the gym.”
Sara looked at Nate, eyes wide. “And you’re sure about this?”
“Yeah, I watched a whole season, I know it’s her. Do you think she’s transferred here?”
“Isn’t that the actor Sara has a crush on?” Zari chimed in, and Sara shook her head, a little too quickly.
“Not her, not - Ava Sharp e! I don’t have a crush on her -”
“You know the actor’s name, that’s -”
“A normal thing when you really like a tv show.” Sara interrupted, blushing harder. “And not her. Or the character.”
“She’s your lock screen.” Charlie pointed out, lifting her phone up from the cafeteria table, which Sara snatched back.
“I like the show, okay! In a normal way. I’m fine if she’s here, even though it’s definitely not her.” Sara said, mostly to herself. It was pointless anyway, none of her friends looked as if they believed her, and that was valid – Sara had tried to convince all of them at one point or the other to watch Time Raiders, and most of them followed her twitter account dedicated to talking about it, so could bring up miles of evidence of Sara gushing over the fictional characters if they wanted to.
“Did you wish really hard, love?” John said, grinning at Sara’s embarrassment. “Blow out any birthday candles? Meet any genies?”
Thankfully, the bell signaling the end of lunch also signaled the end of their teasing, and Sara was left alone with Behrad as they walked to gym class together.
“Maybe you guys will share a class!” Behrad said excitedly.
“You should take that back before it comes true.” Sara muttered, as she pushed open the door. “There’s probably just a new girl that looks like her. It’s going to be nothing.”
///
Ava Sharpe sat on a hard chair in the principal’s office, scowling. She was scowling for a great number of reasons: she’d barely slept the night before, panicking about every aspect of the next day; her new uniform was itchy; she was feeling distinctly nauseous; and one of her socks, which was meant to be up to her knee, was gently slipping down her leg.
Principal Heywood was talking to her parents, gushing about the school and assuring them that she would settle in quickly, but Ava was only half listening, brushing some non-existent lint from her blazer pocket.
“Oh, Miss Sharpe, this is Gary! I’ve assigned him to be your buddy for your first week.” Principal Heywood said, turning to her for the first time. That got Ava’s attention. She stood up to see another student in the doorway, with dark curly hair and thick glasses, who beamed at her.
“Hey! I’m Gary, Gary Green.” He said, holding his hand out straight in front of him, which Ava shook firmly.
“Ava Sharpe.”
“Should we go to class?” Gary asked brightly, and Ava nodded, turning to her parents, prepared to give them a quick goodbye, but her mother had other plans, pulling her in for a tight hug.
“Have a good day! I’m going to make your favorite dinner when you get home -”
“You’ll do great, duck.” Her dad said, clapping her on the back whilst Ava was still in the grip of her mother’s death hug. She stepped back, giving them a curt nod, before stepping out into the corridor with Gary.
///
Trust Sara to forget her gym clothes on their first day.
It was soccer too, something Sara actually enjoyed, and now she’d been sent to sit in the back of Mr. Stein’s physics class and occupy herself for a double period, which was going to prove impossible for her. She kicked the wall as she walked along the corridor, turning when she heard voices, acutely aware she didn’t have a hall pass.
Oh, shit -
There she was -
Ava, real and in person, looking so out of place in the plaid skirt and dark blazer, scowling as she walked down the corridor, and Sara's heart was beating so wildly she thought she might be sick.
Okay, so maybe her crush on a fictional character was a little more out of control than she thought -
She turned, slipping down the corridor to the left, but she could hear the voices coming closer, what sounded like Gary Green explaining where they were going and who the physics teacher was –
Sara knew where he was heading, because it was the corridor she was in. She set off at a run, turning down as many corridors as she could in the vague direction of the parking lot, in a slight scramble to put as much distance between herself and Ava as possible, but she failed to notice the wet floor sign and went flying, coming to a stop on the opposite wall.
She stood up, tears in her eyes at her throbbing head, and limped to the nurse’s office, thankfully not seen by anyone else.
“I can call your father to pick you up.” The nurse said, handing Sara the ice pack, which she pressed gingerly to her forehead.
“He’s at work.” Sara mumbled. “Can you call my sister?”
Ten minutes later, Sara was in the front seat of the car, not looking at Laurel, fidgeting with her blazer button.
“What happened?” Laurel asked, not taking her eyes off the road, and Sara just pressed the ice pack against her head.
“Wasn’t looking where I was going.” She mumbled.
“You should be more careful.” Laurel said, still not looking over at her.
Sara turned and looked out the window, as houses moved past in a blur, manicured lawn after manicured lawn. Her heart still hadn’t finished racing, the image of Ava impressed on her brain like a photograph, and she swallowed.
Laurel interrupted her thoughts.
“Sorry?”
“I said, did you need anything?” Laurel asked, and Sara looked over. Her eyes were still on the road.
“I’m fine.” Sara muttered.
They drove the rest of the way home in silence.
After a three-hour nap, which made the headache abate slightly, Sara checked her phone to find a barrage of messages in the group chat, asking her where she’d got to, and one from Nate.
nate: hey where did u get to? you missed english. It's really ava sharpe! she's in our english class and u got assigned to be her partner!!
Sara looked up at the ceiling, her head pounding, the ice pack leaving cold condensation on the bruise, and sighed, deeply. As if the day couldn’t get any worse.
///
Ava sat at her desk, finally free from her parents questioning, and unlocked her phone to find a text from Nora. She replied, before her phone buzzed again.
nora: see when you say ‘fine’ abt your first day at a new school I don’t believe you
Ava groaned.
ava: it was fine
nora: you make any friends?
ava: what are we, 5?
nora: having all your friends be your co-stars isn’t good for you
ava: you’re dating one of your co-stars!
Nora and Ray had been together since filming the first few episodes of Time Raiders, and their romance had been public since the first season aired. The whole cast had a long running game of putting a dollar in a jar whenever an interviewer asked them a question about it, and they weren’t far off being able to afford a trip to Disneyworld.
nora: I just want you to be happy, ava
ava: nor, I'm fine. I don’t need more friends. I came here to get a better education.
There was a pause, and Ava took the opportunity to pull out her chemistry homework. No sense falling behind on her first day.
nora: well, don’t close yourself off from other people, okay?
Ava didn’t respond, and opened the textbook, before sighing. She’d already studied titration calculations before, so the homework would just be repetitive.
She hadn’t meant for it to happen at her previous high school, she hadn’t meant to close off from everyone. It had just been difficult to go from the bookish nerd who sat in the library every lunchtime and did a few local commercials to being a main character on a trending TV show, suddenly approached to go to every party and for constant selfies at 14, not knowing who her friends were and who just wanted to have a viral TikTok with her in it. It wasn’t long before Ava stopped talking to anyone, deleted her social media and rarely left the house, until her parents convinced her that perhaps a new school with better academic credentials might be a better fit for her.
Ava hadn’t even told anyone at her previous school that she was leaving. No one had texted her to ask about it. It was easier just to be friends with her co-stars; Nora and Mona mostly, but she was friendly with Ray, Kendra and Carter, even if she really only talked about ancient history with Carter. They didn’t want anything from her, didn’t expect her to be like her character, the sharp witted and fearless Luna, they just wanted to hang out like normal teenagers.
Ava breathed, and looked back at her homework. Two more years , she thought. Two more years and she’d be at film school, learning to be a director, high school just a distant memory.
///
Laurel had left early, stating her goodbye at the breakfast table as Sara picked at her bagel, only half listening to her dad as he explained what time he’d be back, and that he’d left $20 on the counter for pizza.
Then, the door shut, and the house was empty. Sara kept her headphones on the whole bus ride, the volume turned up as loud as she could stand. After her first classes, Sara made her way to her English classroom.
“I’m going to need to change partners.”
Mr. Hunter looked up at her, the same tired expression he’d worn since Sara had joined his English class etched on his face.
“Miss Lance, your class has an even number of people. You were absent, I assigned you to work with Miss Sharpe.”
“And there’s no way to change the partners?” Sara asked, but Mr. Hunter’s expression didn’t change. “Fine - what did I miss yesterday? Do I have to catch up?”
“I left your work with Miss Sharpe - here’s your copy of Wuthering Heights.” Mr. Hunter said, handing Sara the battered volume. “Talk it through with her. Maybe you’ll find you have something in common.”
“Thanks.” Sara muttered, before turning to leave, stuffing the book in her bag.
By the time she’d reached the cafeteria Sara had already spotted Ava, taking her lunch back out towards the library, a scowl on her face, glaring at everyone she passed. Sara grabbed a sandwich and made her way back to the library, where a smattering of nerdy kids were eating lunch together. Ava, however, was sat alone.
“Hey - uh – I'm Sara.” Sara said, her heart beating wildly as she realized she was speaking to the Ava Sharpe, but luckily her star struck expression was tempered by the annoyance at being met with Ava’s glare.
“You’re Sara? My English partner?” Ava asked, her eyebrow raised. “Where have you been? I had to read twice as many chapters of Wuthering Heights yesterday because you weren’t here.”
“I hit my head, the nurse thought I could have had a concussion.” Sara said, slightly taken aback by Ava’s tone. Ava looked at her.
“How did you do that?”
“I wasn't looking where I was going.” Sara said, the heat rising in her cheeks as she thought about the real reason for the bruise on her forehead.
Ava just kept looking at her. “You should be more careful.”
“I know.” Sara said, her expression shifting to a glare. “Can you help me catch up?”
“We read the first two chapters.” Ava said. “I’m Ava, by the way.”
“I know.” Sara said, then backtracked as quickly as she could. “I - uh – heard, anyway. It’s not everyday Star City Academy gets a new student.”
“Yeah, I love being a spectacle.” Ava muttered, looking down as she poked her fork into her lunch. “We had to answer some questions on the book too. I don’t have time to go over them now, but if you come back here after your last class -”
“I can’t stay late; I have to get the bus home. Not everyone at this school is rich as shit, y’know.”
Ava just looked at her, still scowling. “Fine. I’ll email them over to you tonight.”
“Thanks.” Sara muttered. There was a part of her that wanted to walk out, but another, slightly louder part, remembered being the new kid in a big school. “Do you want to come sit in the cafeteria with me?”
Ava looked at her, her eyebrows knitted together in a glare. “I’m fine here.” She muttered.
Sara got the message loud and clear, and left.