'I...am...in...looooooove with him' trilled Galinda, adjusting her hat in front of the mirror. OzFm, the school radio station was blasting out from the rooms pink radio. Elphaba sighed and buried her head back in her book. She had no time for the Ozdust Daredevils, the band of boys at Shiz playing at being rock stars. Flashy Fiyero on lead singing and guitar, arrogant Avaric on drums and hapless little Boq on keyboard. All the girls swooned over Avaric and Fiyero where they strutted around school like they owned the place. Boq occasionally got a mention. As far as Elphaba was concerned, they were just a few more of the idiots that populated this school. She blocked her ears to Galinda's squeaking and read on. It wasn't as if she had anything against the music but...she wouldn't be caught dead saying out loud that she found the tunes a little catchy, the beat a little addictive...that was it. She didn't care about the band. Especially not Fiyero.

'I never saw it coming, the way a voice can make me feel

And I fear that I am falling'

He had caught her eye that time at lunch, over the carefully coiffured head of Galinda and her irritating friends. She glared at him for staring at her and to her surprise, he smiled, a sunny grin that lit up his boyish face. It made him seem friendly almost, not quite so distant. Confused, she ducked her head and stared back down at her book.

The next time he had sauntered casually over, eliciting squeals from Galinda and their cronies, Elphaba hadn't known he was there until he perched on the table next to her, so deeply absorbed was she in her book. A shadow fell over her page and she looked up to see him looking at her. He tapped the book with a knuckle. 'Good book?'

'Yes.' She was irritated with him disturbing her. Galinda would kill to be in her shoes. But all she could think about was her book.

'What's it about?'

'I doubt you'd understand.' A ripple of laughter reverberated around the table. Avaric with his arm around Shen Shen's padded shoulders, chuckled patronisingly.

'It was worth a try.'

'What would you know of books?'

'Well...you got me there. Anyone who knows me knows I never got past the beginners books, me.' He smiled around the table to the laughter, revealing gleaming white teeth. She rested her head on her hand sideways and waited for them to stop. It was almost amusing to see these idiots finding her funny. They had no idea how they looked. Glancing at him, she was surprised to see that he wasn't joining in. Now he was looking down at the table with a secret smile on his face. Like he wasn't laughing at her, he was laughing with her. At these people who had no idea that this daily bullying didn't affect her in the least. He raised his dark eyes and looked at her straight in the face. At the luminous hue of her face and that long black hair reaching almost to her waist, those slender fingers resting on the page. As if he actually didn't mind talking to her. He made a point of talking the next time. And the next. Until she got used to hearing his voice.

'He's in a rock band with a voice like an angel

And eyes of a raven sky'

'How in the name of Oz did you get to talk to him and turn him down at the same time?' Exclaimed Galinda as they left to go to chemistry class.

'He didn't ask me anything for me to turn him down' said Elphaba, who was getting sick and tired of all this constant twittering about Fiyero and the band.

'Oh I wish he'd talked to me like that' sighed Galina wistfully.

'He's just another boy' she reminded her firmly.

'Just another boy! Oh, Elphie, how can you say that?'

'Easily.'

She had no reason to think of him in any way else. He belonged to Galinda and her little primping, pink world. Nothing to do with her.

It had nothing to do with the fact that recently she had felt a little different. Her heart had skipped a beat the last time he had come to sit with them on the playing field. Surrounded by all their friends, there wasn't anything to do other than nod at each other.

Until the game started. Spin the bottle. After some comedic fooling around, Avaric produced a half drunk bottle of undistinguishable liquor to the delight of most of the group. When they had finished the bottle between them, Elphaba included, a few sips of burning liquid were enough, and the game had started.

Poor Boq had to scramble over to plant an awkward kiss on Galinda's powdered cheek. She shrieked with laughter and he had retreated back to his place, face as red as beetroot. Avaric nonchalantly leaned over to lock lips with Shen Shen and got his mouth coated in raspberry lip gloss to everyone's amusement. Elphaba sat still as the bottle span over to her and stopped. She dared look up as the group shrieked with mirth. She had to kiss someone, not to be kissed. She reached over and spun the bottle. Executing a crazy quickstep, it eventually rested, lazily pointing to Fiyero. They looked at each other, the sun bright in their eyes. She got up to a sudden hush, the crowd waiting to see what would happen next. He froze to the spot, not even blinking, barely breathing. Would she dare?

'So here I stand fighting what I feel for you

Torn between what reason says and how I really feel'

She turned his head with a finger and leaned forward to give him the lightest of touches, a feathery kiss by his temple, barely felt on the wind. He looked at her, brow furrowed and eyes searching for a trick in the kiss.

There was none. She returned to her place to a chorus of catcalls and whoops from the others. He remained silent, eyes closed, head turned up to the wind, savouring the kiss. Such a simple thing, it had floored his cocky self. She wasn't for him. But at that moment, he had wished she was.

'But who am I kidding to even think that you might see me

It's in the stars that girls like me

And boys like you were never meant to be'

She was wrong. His teeth weren't perfect. She noticed a few crooked ones here and there. He offered her some of his lunch, a piece of plum cake. She took some, crumbled it absentmindedly. Licked the crumbs off of her fingers and stopped only when she saw him looking at her. Laughed at her habit. She'd chucked a book at him, making him duck. He asked if she would come to their gig tonight. She said maybe. He gave her a wink as he got up from the table.

'And here I stand, wondering what to say to you

Hoping that you feel the same, the same as I do'

He was on the radio now, talking about the latest song they had written, about a girl, a girl on the playing field, in the classroom, a girl on their mind. 'It's meeeeeeeeeee!' squealed Galinda. Elphaba said nothing, had let her believe it. But she had caught him humming that tune before they had written the words and he stopped when he noticed she was listening. Her face was hidden by the book but her fingers had stopped turning the pages. He had written the song for her, she knew. It was his way of telling her that he noticed everything about her.

He played the guitar for her alone.

He was more than just a voice on the radio.