#opens my mouth and the thunderous applause of an entire stadium comes out

[habibialkaysani]

What Dreams Are Made Of (Laurel-centric; G)

Ships: Laurel/Nyssa (mentioned)

Summary: "And now, to begin the Star City Teen Choice Awards with a bang, please welcome to the stage our opening act, the dynamic duo, the indescribable… Pretty-Bird and Mr Green!"

Or, when Laurel l'Uccello is duped by famous American singer Oliver Queen into impersonating Ollie's ex-girlfriend, Dinah Lance (who is, like, totally her twin) while on stage.

Thankfully, said twin comes to her rescue.

A/N: Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where this came from, just that I needed to write something that would make me laugh and wasn't that serious, and when I felt down at work today I decided to watch the famous "What Dreams are Made of" scene from the Lizzie McGuire Movie, complete with singing that is nearly as shitty as mine.

So the scenario is follows the Lizzie McGuire Movie - if you haven't watched it, the cliffnotes are that Lizzie goes to Rome for a school trip. She meets a guy there, Paolo, a famous singer, who mistakes her for his (ex) girlfriend, Isabella, who looks exactly like Lizzie, just brunette. Paolo ends up convincing Lizzie to impersonate Isabella in public, hoping in the process to humiliate her by making it look like she can't sing, because he presumes Lizzie can't sing. In fact, it turns out that Paolo can't even sing live himself, so the tables turn on him during the performance.

Read at AO3

"And now, to begin the Star City Teen Choice Awards with a bang, please welcome to the stage our opening act, the dynamic duo, the unbelievable, indescribable… Pretty-Bird and Mr Green!"

Applause broke out among the crowd, not quite as thunderous as it would be later on, but still filled with whoops and cheers of enthusiasm, not to mention a fair few wolf-whistles as Oliver Queen took to the stage.

Confident and handsome as ever, Ollie sauntered onto the stage. This time, though, Laurel wasn’t enamoured as she watched from just behind the curtain. Perhaps it was because she knew he was lip-syncing the first words of his title song into the microphone: "Have you ever seen such a beautiful night?"

He turned to his partner, supposedly on stage and off, with a knowing smirk, and Laurel l’Uccello (pretending to be Dinah Lance), though nervous, began to do the same as him, mouthing the words - and miraculously, they sounded just as good as the vocals she had mimed to during rehearsal.

"I could almost kiss the stars for shining so bright," Laurel mouthed, a grin spreading on her lips as she caught sight of her saviour – Dinah, the real Dinah – behind Oliver.

Oliver's smile started to fade as he continued to mime. "When I see you smiling, I go -" But the rest of his line came out garbled, off-key, sounding, Laurel thought triumphantly as Dinah stepped onto the stage and into view, just as wrong as he was when he thought that he could humiliate either of them.

"I would never want to miss this," Dinah sang, in the kind of perfect tune Laurel realised Oliver had never learned to practice, and Laurel actually laughed as Ollie tried, valiantly, to keep going.

"'Cause in my heart, I know what this is," he sang in his horrible voice, the one the whole world was now exposed to. There was something ridiculously vindicating in seeing him being booed by the crowd so quickly.

Dinah regarded him with scorn. "This is what dreams are made of…" The piano went on and Oliver missed his cue, so then she added, "Sing to me, Ollie."

For a moment there was silence - the music was still playing, but that made it better, really, because the music was what Oliver Queen was finally being made to face.

Then he ripped off his mic and stomped off the stage.

"Guys and gals," Dinah said into her mic, to resounding applause and cheers, "and most importantly, my nonbinary pals – make some noise for my new Italian friend, Laurel l’Uccello!"

And God, it was surprisingly freeing, when after giving everyone a wave, Laurel took off the brunette wig she had on and shook free her blonde hair, even more so when the crowd at her feet seemed to delight in the gesture just as much as her.

"Buena sera, Star City!"

"Do you wanna hear her sing?" Dinah said into her mic. The crowd cheered loudly in assent, and the music started up, more upbeat than the ballad version they had before. Dinah covered the mic with her hand for a second, saying quietly to Laurel, "Don't worry, girl - you got this."

And to Laurel’s amazement, Dinah was right. Against what felt like all odds, Laurel was good at this. Her voice came naturally to her, as if her vocal chords had been primed all her life, all those times she thought it hadn’t mattered, for this very moment.

And Dinah, her pseudo-twin who somehow not only looked like Laurel but who moved like her too, naturally mirroring Laurel on stage as if they had practised this routine for weeks, sang with Laurel; they sang their hearts out so they really did bring the house down. Their voices reverberated around the stadium, coming together as one when they got to the chorus of "hey now", echoed by the audience who were on their feet now.

About halfway through, Laurel caught sight of her best friend, Nyssa, who was watching with a distinct look of pride as Laurel sang - so when Laurel got to "here and now, it's you and me" she looked right at Nyssa, pointing first at herself and then at Nyssa. Nyssa's response was for the biggest smile Laurel had ever seen to split across her beautiful face.

The crowd was screaming in approval by the end, and then as the song finished Laurel took Dinah's hand and they did a bow to the audience - two pretty birds who had, in fact, never needed a Mr Green, and were, at the end of the day, well shot of him.