"Love can sometimes be magic. But magic can sometimes...just be an illusion." -Javan

When Galinda came home that afternoon she knew something was off. Her jewelry box sat in it's place on her vanity. Her silver hairbrush rested on her dresser just as she had left it. Not one of her dozens of pairs of shoes was out of place.

It was her lovely green roommate that was off. She was curled up under her navy blue quilt, blanket pulled over her head. That wasn't the odd part- that was the way Elphaba normally slept. But she never slept during the middle of the day. Was she ill? Had she received a letter with bad news? Had she received a B on one of her examinations? "Elphie, are you awake?"

The mound of blankets shifted. The bed creaked as she rolled over and a green hand appeared from beneath the dark cover. A green face appeared after it, purplish circles under her eyes. "Unfortunately."

That didn't help. "Are you... alright?"

She smirked and sat up, pulling her dark hair back with a rubber band that rested on her bedside table. "Galinda, I'm not sure you're aware, but I stayed up rather late last night studying for my History midterm. When I finally did get to lay down, several hours after you did, might I add, I tossed and turned all night. This morning I woke up and you were not there. I assumed you were in the bathroom because you normally do wake before I do to do... whatever it is you do to your hair. So I went back to sleep, waiting for my alarm clock. A little while later, I woke up again. You were gone. And the clock said it was ten after eight. My alarm was set for seven. You see, I needed to take the test I studied for. My professor doesn't give grades for simply studying until three in the morning. So I needed to actually attend class. And that class meets at eight thirty. You know, it's a bit difficult to be on time when your roommate unplugs your alarm clock so she can plug in her curling iron."

"Oh," Galinda squeaked. "Oh dear..."

"Oh dear is right. But don't worry, I made it to class just on time. My skirt and blouse didn't match and I was wearing two left shoes but that's not a huge problem. I've done worse. And so I figured that would be the worst part of my day."

"And it wasn't?" Elphaba's fashion disaster has sounded pretty horrible to Galinda.

"Do you consider dropping your cafeteria tray full of mystery meal all over your two left shoes in front of all of Shiz worse?"

Galinda flinched. "I'm sure it wasn't all of Shiz... I wasn't there, anyway." Elphaba gave her the evil eye and she caved, "Did I forget to mention that I'm sorry about turning off your alarm?" She didn't respond, simply pulling the blanket back over her head. "I'll just... let you catch up on your sleep."

Galinda felt horrible as she looked despairingly at her schoolbooks... that wasn't so out of the ordinary, but the why was. She wasn't even thinking about her homework, she was thinking of what she had done to her friend. Surely there was a way to make things up to her? A good deed that would cheer her up, make her happier?

But she came up with nothing. Dejected, she set out to do her homework. She only had sorcery, but that was her most difficult class. Normally Elphaba helped her. That wouldn't be an option today. Her mind wandered. She began simply skimming her spell book, trying to come up with a way to help her friend. That was more important than schoolwork, wasn't it?

That was when she saw the spell. I can cast a love spell on Elphie! Surely falling in love would cheer her up! She skimmed the particulars of the spell. It was slightly random as to who the recipient would fall in love with, but it was guaranteed to be reciprocated. There was no reversal spell, the book saying that to reverse it one must be kissed by their true love- without the aid of magic. But why did that matter, anyway? Why would Galinda have to reverse the spell?

So when she was sure Elphaba wasn't paying any attention to her, she cast the spell. What's the worst thing that could happen?

Not for the first time, Boq tried to foster in himself a genuine love of Nessarose Thropp. It wasn't working, to say the least. He really wished he loved her. It would make things so much easier for everyone. She loved him, wasn't that half the battle? He really did wish he could return her feelings. He knew how bad it was to love someone and to have them not love you back... she was pretty. She was intelligent. She was charming.

He should've easily been able to love her but he came up, well, short. His thoughts kept turning to the taken Galinda Upland. He wanted her, no matter how hard he tried to force himself to fall for Nessarose. But she was with Fiyero. She loved him and he loved her. That was how it was supposed to be, wasn't it? Two people in a relationship were supposed to love each other. That was the theory, but it seemed pretty unusual for that to actually happen in practice. So often one loved their partner more than they were loved in return, or there was some reason two people who were in love couldn't be together. It was horrible.

He would do something, he vowed. It wasn't fair to Nessarose to be in the relationship if he couldn't hope to return her feelings. He would explain things to her and tell her he wanted to remain friends. They'd only dated for a couple of weeks, anyway.

In truth, it was more than her missing alarm clock and the lunch room disaster that had Elphaba in a horrible mood. But she sure as hell wasn't going to tell Galinda that the real reason she was so crabby was because she had spent the previous night trying to get Fiyero out of her head. Why hadn't she cast her spell on him when she'd cast a spell on everyone else? Why had he helped her? Why had she felt like she was going to throw up when he touched her hand, but not wanted him to let go?

It made absolutely no sense. Did she have a crush on him? That was ridiculous, she'd never had a crush on anyone. Besides, who would return her feelings? Definitely not Fiyero who was dating Galinda. And who could blame him? He had everything. Why would he want her?

'I wish she were in love with me,' thought Boq, dreaming of Galinda. He had no hope for making himself fall for his own girlfriend. Not that he had much more hope for Galinda loving him.

'I wish he were in love with me,' Elphaba thought before pushing the thought out of her mind. Those feelings she had had while Fiyero had helped her with the Lion Cub were off base, weren't they?