. How'm I supposed to die? .

Thea Queen is particularly adept at lock-picking, at the tender age of twelve she considers herself an expert at it. All courtesy of her big brother Ollie, the families resident tearaway playboy. She doesn't announce her presence to her brother before entering and instead runs into his room and throws herself into his arms, tears threatening to spill and fall down her cheeks. "You can't leave me here!" Her hands formed small fists and she goes from burrowing into his embrace to hitting him.

Her emotions were tearing away at her and she couldn't help but loose control, Ollie was the person who came to her parent-teacher evenings and helped her do her hair, listened to her when she rambled about whatever boy she had a crush on or whoever had upset her at school. She usually just ranted about her teachers on those occasions until he calmed her down with promises of movies and popcorn.

She doesn't want him to go.

She understands that he will only be gone for a few days, a month at the worst. But that feels like an eternity to her. Especially since she had wanted to join him but Dad wouldn't listen to her and she didn't feel like getting Ollie banned from going from spilling the fact that he was going with their Father, too. Even if neither of their parents knew that yet.

But he was always the one who was there - Mom and Dad were always busy with work. And yes, she understood that it was because of that work that she was so wealthy. As Raisa always reminded her she was privileged, but Thea would happily trade one of their private jets for some more time with her parents.

"Speedy!" Her brother soothes, restraining her slightly in an attempt to stop the weak blows that are coming his way. "Hey! Hey! Calm down..." He promises to make whoever hurt her regret it, promises to give her the entire world if it gets her to stop crying. He sighs and looks at her with an uncertain expression, he was usually on the receiving end of his sisters mood swings but this was one of the few times where he appeared to be the cause of it. "Thea...I'll only be gone a few weeks...I promise to bring you back something cool, alright?"

After his last trip he'd brought her back a snow globe, she had four of them; one from Rome (Her Father had went there on a business trip), one from Vegas, one from New York and one from when he and Tommy had gone to Washington D.C. on a school trip.

Thea shakes her head, "Why can't you just take me with you? It's not fair...Dad's always leaving...I don't want you to go too!"

"You'll have Mom and Raisa and Tommy and Laurel...I won't even be gone that long." When that doesn't work, Oliver looks at her tear stained and launches a last ditch attempt to please his sister, "How about you come with me then?"

It works.

"You'll let me come with?" Thea checks as a small smile starts to form, she needs to check that Oliver is actually going to help her - that he was going to let her come with him. "I thought Dad said I couldn't."

Oliver already seems to be regretting his master plan, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "Dad's going to kill me...and Sara's going to castrate me." She wonders if she'd get to spend some time with Sara on the Yatch, she likes Sara, Sara's funny and loud and she makes Thea laugh. Thea likes Laurel too, Laurel helps her with her homework and had taught her how to defend herself when some older kids decided to try to beat her up.

But she isn't planing on spilling the beans on that love triangle if it gets Ollie in trouble.

Ollie comes first.

They spent the next hour plotting how to get Thea onto the Queen's Gambit without raising suspicion. Deciding that it would be best not to reveal Thea's presence until they were too far from Starling City to turn around the Yatch.

"He can't stop you if we're already sailing when he finds out." Her brother tells her with a small smirk and Thea is certain that she has the best big brother in the world. Beaming from ear to ear Thea hurries to her room, ignoring Raisa's suspicious look and began to pack a bag for the trip.

Her friends were going to be so jealous.

Thea Queen sat hesitantly in Sara's car at the Starling City Docks where her Father's Yatch was due to set sail. She had told Raisa that Ollie was going to drop her off at school before he went to the docks to help their Father get ready to set sail.

Which had been a lie, not that Raisa had to know that.

"Mom's there...you stay in the car with Sara speedy...I'll come grab you when we're all in the clear." She shot him a mock salute and watched as he walked off, Mom was going to kill him.

Hopefully their Mother would concede and allow him onto the Gambit, she wanted to go to China and she guessed that Sara did too.

Oliver headed over to where his parents were currently 'debating' about his Father's Yatch trip, shooting his Dad his most charming smile he laid down his rucksack and turned to his Mom with an innocent expression.

"Hey!" He called out with a cheerful voice, determined to get both himself and Thea onto the boat. When his Mom tried to protest he quickly deflected and turned to his Father, "Let me keep Dad company."

"Oliver you're in school!" Mom tried to reason.

He winced slightly, "Not really." Not giving her a chance to comment on it he quietly turned to their Father, "I forgot to tell you that." Giving them both a 'what can you do expression.' their Mother sighed and Thea wondered what College she was going to bribe next, maybe she could get Ollie into Princeton or MIT - get a science lab or sports building named after them.

Thea chuckled from where she was sat inside of the car, he had gotten kicked out of College about a week ago. He had been crashing at Tommy's and Laurel's respectively when Mom had thought he was at college.

It was his fourth College, her brother was definitely consistent.

"I could use an extra hand on the ship." Their Father offered, ever the peacekeeper. Thea allowed herself to squeal with excitment and punch the air with victory, if their Dad was agreeing to letting Ollie on the boat then it was practically a done deal. Mom could never beat with the two of them when they decided to team up.

"Robert!" Their Mom reprimanded, albeit weakly.

"Moria...let the kid take the boat out with his old man." He offered with his trademark smile. Silently Thea added, 'Let the kid smuggle his sister onto the boat as well.'

Sighing she shook her head and admitted defeat, "Alright! But you'll promise me that you behave yourself?"

Ollie shot her the innocent expression that he usually saved for the nights where he was brought home in the back of a cop car, "Oh yeah...I promise." Apart from the whole sneaking his sister and his girlfriend's little sister onto the boat, yup that was definitely him behaving himself.

Thea watched as the two embraced and a small part of her felt a pang of jealously, she wasn't going to get to say goodbye to Mom. Then her eyes went wide as she saw Laurel approach, she shared a panicked look with Sara and the pair decided to go for a drive around the block.

Better than getting caught and having to explain what exactly the pair of them were doing at the Docks.

Fifteen minutes later and Thea was being smuggled onto the Yatch by Ollie and Sara. She watched through a porthole as their Mom stood on the docks and waved off her Father and Brother. She gripped her locket and smiled wistfully, knowing that her Mother was going to panic later on that day when her school phoned to report that she didn't appear today but by then it would be too late and she would be well on her way to China.

"Bye Mom.." She ran her finger over the grooves of her locket as she watched her Mom become a smudge on the horizon, a small blip in the distance. "I love you," She hoped that when her Mom did find out she'd gone with Ollie that she wouldn't be too mad, too angry at her, she just hadn't wanted Oliver to leave her behind.