Reciprocal Altruism || Snowbarry College AU

Less Than Three II

It took Caitlin quite a while to find Nora once again. The building really was the biggest maze she had ever encountered with so many special rooms and equipment for people with a love of science to use and explore.

Though Caitlin still felt a twinge of anxiety being the building that created a lot of past trauma in her life, little-by-little she was reminded of fond memories that had kept her here, spending late night after night using her handy-dandy pipette or waiting for her bacteria to culture.

But then memories of hands at her wrist and a chilling voice on the back of her neck had her clenching her fists so hard it started to cause nail indents into her hands. She remembered the smell of a sour cologne that burned in the back of her throat and her eyes watering at the rough push as her head hit the wall.

No, Caitlin thought, squeezing her eyes shut. Stop thinking about it. Block it out.

It was over with. It was done. And she was only going to be in the building a few minutes longer. Just to find Nora and leave. She had to leave. She had to—

"Caitlin!" Nora came bounding over. "I found you!"

Caitlin released a shuddery breath. "Nora, where have you been?"

"I was walking around peeking into the different rooms and I met someone who volunteered to give me a tour! I told him I was waiting for you, but then we got to talking and he is so cute, I had to take the tour."

Caitlin chuckled at the younger girl's energy. "So you ready to go?"

"You're not gonna ask me how it went with the guy?"

The two of them started walking towards the exit. "How'd it go with the guy?" Caitlin asked dutifully.

"I'm so glad you asked! It went absolutely amazingly. He even gave me his number and we're going out soon!"

"That's great, Nora," Caitlin said honestly. Once they had stepped out of the building, Caitlin felt the tight pressure that had surrounded her start to drift away almost immediately. "But you're a senior in high school, so maybe you should focus on graduating and getting accepted here first before you secure yourself a college boyfriend."

"Oh, I'm a shoe-in," Nora boasted proudly. "My parents go here, so I already know the ins and outs of the school."

Just as Caitlin was about to ask where her parents worked in the school, Nora's stomach rumbled. "Well, thank you for taking me here, Caitlin! I should go grab some lunch now!" Nora waved her goodbyes behind her as she, yet again, sprinted off to her next location.

"Hope to see you again, Nora!" Caitlin called out to her receding figure; she shook her head wondering where that girl got all her energy from. For a second she thought it was a high schooler thing, but Caitlin certainly never had that much energy as a high schooler.

***

While walking to her apartment, Caitlin momentarily considered opening up for course notification and finally seeing what her grade was. It was hell just waiting for grades to be posted, but a different kind of hell having the grades there... just waiting to be opened and potentially ruin every shred of self-esteem she had left (not that she had much to begin with).

When she entered her home, she was surprised to find Barry lounging on her couch with Yoda bear resting on his lap. He beamed when he saw her and gestured to an empty spot on her couch.

"Felicity told me where the hidden key was," Barry said. "She's still stuck at work, something about a crazy scandal the League has to deal with, but she says 'hi.'"