Galinda
Galinda walked along the cobblestone path just outside the dorms of Shiz University. The day was bright, the sky was blue, the grass was green, the water by the forest was crystal blue, this couldn't be a more perfect day. However, with the birds singing and the flowers blooming, Galinda couldn't help but feel the complete opposite sensation inside of her. Beauty was blossoming all around her as winter melted away, but inside her, it was like a loss of all inspiration. Nothing she did, or anyone else for that matter, could give her that sense of completeness.
"Hey!" Galinda was pulled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice across the lawn.
"Fiyero, hi…" she walked up to him dazedly and half-heartedly gave him a peck on the lips.
"Um, is everything all right?" Galinda knew she wasn't herself lately, and clearly Fiyero had noticed, seeing as she wasn't bouncing around like normal, but this was the first time, she really didn't care at all to even try and hide it. "Galinda?"
"Oh, heh, yes Fiyero dear, I'm sorry, I have a bit of a headache. I was just heading to my dorm to get a bit of rest."
"See Galinda, it scares me when you're not bouncing off the walls." Galinda gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Feel better." He pulled her in for a hug and placed a small kiss on her forehead.
"Meet me for dinner?" she asked.
"Sure. 6:00?"
"Sounds great." And with one parting kiss, Galinda was back on the path to her dormitory.
I really hope Elphaba's not there. Galinda thought to herself. She always knows when something's wrong. It's like a sixth sense she has. As Galinda finally came up to her door, she had her hand on the knob, and she was about to turn it when,
"Excuse me? Miss Galinda?"
Damn it! I was so close! She closed her eyes, bit down on her lip, spun on her heel and exhaled with all the aggravation in the world.
"Yes, Boq? What in the world could be so important that you would risk your life to talk to me when I'm in the mood that I am in now! What Boq! WHAT!"
"Oh, I…" Boq trailed off. Galinda could see the hurt, and slight fear in his eyes, and instantly regretted having said what she said.
"I mean…Boq, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"Never mind Miss Galinda. I'm sorry for having disturbed you. Goodbye." He then disappeared down the path that Galinda had just come from. Galinda had never seen such hurt in Boq before. She had always just assumed that he was just an annoying little munchkin following her around because of her charm. She'd completely ruled out the idea that he had feelings too.
"What is wrong with me!" Galinda said as she leaned against the door of her room and slid all the way down to the floor. She was in no mood to move at all, and remained in that position thinking over the happenings of the past few days. There was really nothing in her life to complain about, and yet, she was so incredibly unhappy. She was always tired, and often cranky. This was not her at all.
All of a sudden she was pulled out of her thoughts when the door supporting her back opened and she fell into the room. Looking up she was staring right into Elphaba's green face. Elphaba just stared at her.
"Hi Elphie." Galinda said from the floor not having the energy to move.
"Galinda?" Elphaba looked appalled at the fact the Galinda was now laying on the floor in a new dress, in quite an embarrassing position, and was not scrambling to get to her feet. "What on earth are you doing!"
"I was just thinking" said Galinda still from the floor. She finally stood up and dusted herself off. "You know, I was fine until you opened the door, I was leaning against it you know…"
"Well how was I supposed to know that?" Elphaba retorted, "And what's wrong with you? Since when do you sit on the floor, especially in an expensive dress?"
"I told you!" Galinda whined "I was thinking."
"What, you can't think standing up?"
"Elphaba, I'm not in the mood…" Galinda pushed past her and settled down on her bed. Elphaba however, remained frozen to the spot.
"You called me Elphaba…"
"I did…It's your name isn't it?"
"You never call me Elphaba. It's always been Elphie. Something's up. Spill."
"Oh Elphie, stop it, nothing's wrong with me. Go away!" Elphaba sighed at this comment.
"You know what Galinda, I would stay to argue, and eventually win, but I have class right now. I'll be back later. Remember, you can't avoid me, I live with you." Elphaba gave a cackle and walked out of the room and closed the door. Galinda let her upper body just drop back onto the bed and she proceeded to stare at the ceiling.
"If Elphie doesn't succeed in sorcery, she will make a very good social worker." And with that thought, she began to drift into a sleep. She was almost gone when suddenly she had a thought that caused her to bolt upright and suddenly become wide awake. "Since when does anyone have class on a Saturday!" In a flash, Galinda was up and instantaneously fully-rested. She needed to find out where Elphaba was, and what she was hiding from her.
Elphaba
The thought that Galinda might catch on to what Elphaba was doing did not even cross Elphaba's mind. She took confidence in the fact that Galinda was a total airhead. Elphaba ran up the steps to Dr. Dillamond's lab and opened the door. Test tubes were bubbling, while a pot of some chemical was heating on a stove. A strange odor filled Elphaba's nose, as she made a face and closed the door. This place almost seemed like a kitchen in which someone was cooking and had left the room for a few minutes. There were books and papers scattered on a desk away from the stove.
"Dr. Dillamond?" Elphaba inquired. Odd, she thought, usually he never leaves this room. Well, perhaps he had to use the bathroom. She giggled at the thought of a goat peeing but quickly coughed to cover it up. She couldn't have people hear her giggle, it would ruin her reputation. In a way, she kind of liked having some people being afraid of her. It kept them to a good distance. She wasn't really a people person.
"Dr. Dillamond?" Elphaba called again, "I was wondering if we were going to work on that research project tonight?" She however did not receive a response. All of a sudden, her stomach seemed to drop a few inches. What if something happened to him? she thought, What if the wizard found out about this? What if they've taken him to prison? Or worse! She however pushed "the worst" out of her mind, and gulped away this anxiety that was building in her throat. She walked into the back storage room of the lab and to her dismay and happiness at the same time, did not find Dr. Dillamond. She walked back out of the storage room suddenly very afraid for herself. She kept spinning around looking for someone who could be watching her. This was not like Dr. Dillamond to just stop his work, pick up and leave. Someone had to have tipped someone off about his work. She was slowly backing out of the room when she heard an ear piercing scream come from somewhere, at the moment, she was working on adrenaline, so she was really not all that interested in where it came from, her insides just told her to get her ass out of that room. She flew down the steps, taking them one at a time, but still moving her feet faster than a revolving fan. She ran out of the building not looking behind. She ran past the bushes. She stopped dead. She saw something pink in the corner of her eye. She turned around. Galinda was sitting on the ground with her hands covering her mouth and tears streaming down her face.
"Galinda!" Elphaba ran over to her, "What the hell happened? Are you all right?" Elphaba did not get a response, which meant something was very wrong. If Galinda had the opportunity to talk, but declined, something was very, very wrong. "Galinda," Elphaba knelt down beside Galinda and put her hands on her upper arms, "What happened?" More tears streamed down Galinda's face as she slowly pointed towards the bushes. Elphaba turned and her heart stopped. What she saw made her want to vomit. There was Dr. Dillamond, laying in the dirt behind the bushes, surrounded by a pool of his own blood.
"Dr. Dillamond…" Elphaba gasped. She immediately abandoned Galinda and hopped over the bushes to see if he was in fact dead. She was obviously hoping he wasn't, but her instincts told her otherwise.
"Elphie, don't!" Galinda finally decided to speak, but Elphie chose not to listen.
"Dr. Dillamond…" Elphaba repeated as she lifted his head off the ground. She held back tears and vomit as she saw his skull was cracked and there was no way that anyone could survive that. She was in a squatting position with her elbows on her knees, and her forehead resting on the back of her wrist, seeing as her hands were now covered in blood. "Who did this?" Elphaba whispered, her eyes closed, "WHO THE FUCK DID THIS!" she stood up as she shouted this, her voice echoing off the buildings. Galinda started sobbing now. "What are you doing here Galinda, I thought you were resting. Were you spying on me! What happened to Dr. Dillamond! WHAT HAPPENED!" Elphaba screamed herself out as she dropped to the ground on her knees and bent over so she was in a position as if she were bowing before the Buddha. She wiped what blood she could off of her hands onto the grass as she started crying, her head hung as far down as the spinal cord would allow. She suddenly felt two shaking hands on her back. She jumped at once and almost smacked Galinda, but caught herself and didn't do anything. The two girls continued crying together, until Galinda spoke up.
"I'm sorry Elphaba", she said in a dry, hoarse, surprisingly low voice. Elphaba just looked at her with swollen eyes, and a trembling lip. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Fiyero came jogging into the courtyard.
"Girls, is everything all right?" Elphaba stood up to her feet, and walked away from Fiyero to lean against the building and try to compose herself. Galinda looked at Fiyero, and her face scrunched up as if she was about to start crying again. He picked her up off the ground onto her feet and held her in his arms for a few moments. "What happened, why are you-" but then he took her hand, and saw there was blood on it. He looked over at Elphaba, and saw the blood all over her hands as well. He backed away from Galinda for a second, and asked again, almost angrily, "What happened!" his chocolate-brown eyes, searing into her hazel ones.
"Dr. Dillamond is dead." Elphaba answered him, still leaning against the wall, facing away from him. She turned around and wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. "Could you please, go get some help, so we can clean this up, and Dr. Dillamond will be able to rest in peace?" Her voice cracked on the word "peace", but she didn't care, there was no point in hiding her emotions anymore, the only person that had accepted her for her personality and talents rather than only seeing the surface, was now dead.
"Did you…"
"No." Elphaba answered calmly. She knew Fiyero didn't know her all that well, and that she certainly didn't have the appearance of being the innocent one, so she answered him without being nasty or quick. Not the mention that she didn't have the energy.
"I didn't mean that to sound… I mean, I just... I had to-"
"It's fine." She said. "Just hurry please." Fiyero looked at Galinda, and squeezed her hand. He caught a quick glance at the dead goat, and put his hand over his mouth and appeared as though he was about to gag, but he shook it off and in an instant and ran off.
Galinda
"Miss Galinda, please, you need to tell us what happened. Now, I know talking is not a problem for you, just tell us what you saw." Galinda was giving Madam Morrible the silent treatment. She was still traumatized at the sight of the dead goat lying in the bushes. Galinda looked up at Elphaba, who was silent as the grave. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying, and her hands were still covered in the now dried blood. She turned to Fiyero. He was leaning against the wall of Morrible's office, arms crossed and staring at the floor. Galinda turned back to Madame Morrible.
"Well…" she started
"Oh, thank heavens! She speaks!"
"Please Madame! This is hard enough as it is…"
"I know my dear, I'm sorry." She lightly touched Galinda's hand "Go on."
"Elphaba had told me that she was going to class, and I was about to lie down to rest for a while, until I realized it was Saturday, and there are no classes today."
"Mmm, yes dear, good call."
Galinda chose to ignore Morrible. "I went to find Elphaba to see what she was up to, and what she was hiding from me. But I didn't find Elphaba. I found Dr. Dillamond. Well, I found his body, laying in the bushes outside the building where his laboratory is."
"And did you think that perhaps, Miss Elphaba could have been the reason for Dr. Dillamond's death."
"Excuse me!" Elphaba interjected.
"Hush Miss Elphaba, you'll get your turn. At the moment I want to hear from Miss Galinda." Elphaba huffed, and turned to look out the window as she folded her arms and crossed her legs.
"Well, honestly," Galinda continued "at first, I did think that when I found Dr. Dillamond's body, and I knew that Elphaba obviously didn't want me to know where she was or what she was doing, but then after I screamed, Elphaba came running out of his lab straight to me, and asked me what was wrong. Madame, I saw the fear in her eyes, she was not responsible for what happened." Galinda turned and looked at Elphaba, and saw for the second time that Elphaba was crying again.
"Now, Miss Elphaba," Morrible inquired, "you say that Dr. Dillamond asked you to meet him tonight in his lab for some extra help he had agreed to give you."
"Yes ma'am" Elphaba answered, not looking Morrible in the eye. Galinda knew this was a stretch of the truth. Elphaba did not need extra help in life sciences, but Madame Morrible would probably think that Elphaba was just trying to further her education. She made a mental note to ask Elphaba about it later, maybe even tomorrow…or next week.
"Then how is it that you passed the same bush Miss Galinda did, but you did not see his body lying there in the dirt?"
"Madame," Elphaba started, "his body was almost entirely concealed by the bushes."
"Excuse me, Madame?" Galinda asked
"Yes?"
"I would just like to point out that I was in a nosy mood, and probably would not have noticed Dr. Dillamond's body myself had I not been looking for something out of the ordinary…"
"Yes dear, that is a valid point. However! This does not give me reason cease all questions. For now, the three of you should be getting to bed, but be prepared for a meeting with me tomorrow at three o'clock. You may go."
"Thank you Madame." The three of them murmured at three different times.
"Good night." Morrible returned.
Elphaba
(A/N Elphaba is NOT allergic to water in my story).
As Galinda and Elphaba finally entered their dorm, after a long walk, Elphaba went straight to the bathroom to clean herself up. She turned the shower on and stepped in. She washed off the blood from her hands and anywhere else that it got onto, but she could never wash away the memory of Dr. Dillamond. She still couldn't grasp the fact that he was really gone. Gone. It seemed too final. She hadn't even helped him to find a way to convince others of the good that Animals give to this world, nor had she helped him find a cure for the mute syndrome that many Animals were experiencing. She decided she would devote her life to this, in the memory of Dr. Dillamond.
She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a navy blue robe around her when she heard the sound of glass breaking and then a curse from the other room. She dashed out of the bathroom into the bedroom, and saw Galinda standing over a broken perfume bottle.
"Oh, hi, Elphie, I'm sorry, I guess I'm just a little jumpy tonight." Then there was a knocking at the door, to which Elphaba jumped at. Galinda looked at Elphaba, and burst out laughing. "Elphie! You got scared too! It's Fiyero at the door, he just knocked before, that's why I dropped the bottle." Elphaba figured it would be good to laugh a little, but felt guilty none-the-less. Galinda opened the door and let Fiyero in. He immediately wrapped his arms around Galinda and rocked back and forth slowly for a few seconds, all laughing and happiness suddenly sucked out of the room, which Elphaba was glad for. She shouldn't be happy or laughing, not when Dr. Dillamond can't even share in the joys of doing these things anymore. Fiyero pulled away from Galinda and kissed her on the forehead.
"Elphaba," he walked over to her "are you okay?"
"I'm better" she answered, "but I don't think I will ever get over this. He was one of the nicest Animals I've ever known. He worked for everyone, he just wanted everyone to be- to- be happy." Elphaba's voice cracked and she started crying again right in front of Fiyero and Galinda. "I'm sorry." She choked out as she covered her eyes with one shaking hand. Then she felt strong arms wrap around her. She melted into Fiyero's chest and continued to sob even harder holding tightly onto his jacket.
"It's okay Elphaba, you don't have to hide from us. We're all human here." She looked up at him, her tears ceasing for a moment, and then buried her head into his shoulder.
"Thank you" she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck. At this point, Elphaba heard Galinda picking up the pieces of the broken perfume bottle. Even though Fiyero reassured her it was okay, she was glad Galinda was not watching this. Here she was, an ugly green girl, clinging to the most popular girl's boyfriend, who happened to be the most popular boy. She was actually, well, enjoying being in his arms, she felt very safe. "Fiyero?"
"Yes?"
"You believe me, don't you? That it wasn't me?"
"Of course I do Elphaba, I can't even think of a reason why I shouldn't believe you."
"I can, because I am green, because I am ugly, because I'm quiet, because people are generally afraid of me, so they'll just assume the worst… there are so many more reasons, but-"
"But nothing Elphaba! So what? These things aren't true anyway!"
Elphaba just stared at him.
"Well, there is no denying that you are green heh, but why do you think that people hate you? And so what if you are quiet? Some people are quiet, and some people talk a lot…some people talk too much, hem hem."
Elphaba gave a short chuckle that sounded like a sob.
"And I think you are beautiful Elphaba." Elphaba heard Galinda give a loud cough. Fiyero suddenly seemed to realize that Galinda was still in the room. "You know what, I'll see you guys tomorrow, we can all use some rest after tonight."
"Oh Fiyero." Galinda ran over to Fiyero. "Be careful, we don't know who killed Dr. Dillamond, and he could still be out there right now."
"Goodnight Galinda" Fiyero kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight Elphaba." He called from the door, and with that he left. Galinda walked over to Elphaba, wiped a remaining tear off of her face and pulled her into a hug.
"Don't worry Elphie, I know you didn't do it, and you know that. The good guy will always win, as long as you are confident in yourself.
"Thank you Galinda" Elphaba answered as she took both of Galinda's hands in hers and gave a squeeze. "Let's get to bed, shall we?"
"Oh, we shall." Galinda answered as she flopped down on her own bed. "Finally!" Within minutes, Galinda was fast asleep, but Elphaba would take quite a few more hours before she was entirely ready to sleep.