Chapter 1
Random Quote: "Why can't it be follow the butterflies?" Ron, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Elphaba Thropp, age sixteen, grade tenth, sat at the black double desk at the middle of the class, drumming her thin fingers against the table, her eyes scanning over the book before her. There were five minutes left until the second bell rang; every last second of this time was eagerly soaked up by every other student in the room, trying to socialize as much as they could with their comrade before the silence of Mr. Reza's geometry class seeped into their morning.
As usual, Elphaba was left at the desk, meant for two people, by herself, for no one wanted to be seen even within a few feet of the teen. Why, you might ask? Elphaba had long, shiny black hair, tied back into its same lengthy braid, a blue knit cap pulled firmly over her head. She sported dark washed flair jeans, black high-tops, and a long sleeved, dark blue sweater pulled firmly over a black t-shirt, even though the Californian weather made it extremely uncomfortable for that type of clothing during this part of the year. Elphaba would have looked like a normal teenager, if not for her skin.
Elphaba was born with green skin, not an ugly green, such as the green color of mold, but a gleaming emerald green. Simply because of this matter, Elphaba was outcast by everyone, even her own family, no one gave her a chance after seeing her skin, no one got to know the girl that was hurting deep down inside.
To keep her mind off of her dilemma, Elphaba absorbed herself in studies, she would try to learn most everything, including how to control her rare gift of magic, hoping that someday, intelligence and her witch like powers, would be all that people saw, not just the color of her skin, but what the girl was capable of underneath it.
Elphaba kept her eyes focused on her book, Magic: Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday, ignoring the eyes that she could feel burning a hole in the back of her neck. A few of the people in the 'popular' group were seated a desk's length away from her, her ears could pick up their whispers, giggles, and rumors that they were planning on spreading about her, but she chose to ignore them, pushing all the words into the back of her mind, attempting, and failing, not to give them a second thought. If one looked closely, they could see the hurt flash over her normally calm face for a brief millisecond, no more, no less.
The bell finally rang; groans of disappointment could be heard echoing through the class room. Sighing, Elphaba placed a marker in her book, closed it, and gently pushed it into place inside her brown messenger's bag. Allowing her chocolate brown eyes to flicker upwards towards the front of the class for the first time in a half an hour, she was slightly surprised to see a unfamiliar girl standing next to Mr. Reza, facing the class, books clutched in a tight, nervous grip close to her chest, a slight smile plastered onto her face that barely hid her uncertain expression. The girl was wearing skinny jeans, highlighting her long legs, shiny black and turquoise tennis shoes, and a flowing grey tank top with a picture of Snoopy in a dog house on the front. Her normally sholderblade length dirty blonde, almost light brown, hair was tightly set into curls, bouncing around her shoulders, a few black, blue, and white and black striped feathers accented the curls.
"Good morning class." Came Mr. Reza's respective greeting, "How are we all this fabulous Monday morning?"
A mixed response echoed back, filled with words such as 'tired', 'dead', 'I hate Monday's' and a couple of rare 'good's came from the class.
"We have a new student joining us!" He said, a smile rippling across his slightly wrinkled face as he placed an arm gingerly around the girl's shoulder, "Why don't ya tell the class a little about you, sweetheart?"
The girl shuffled her feet, but suddenly, her expression changed, giving away the fact that she enjoyed speaking in front of people.
Great, another person to spread lies…Elphaba thought to herself bitterly, watching in disgust as the girls eyes flickered to the green girl's skin, lingered for a moment, then refocused on the class in whole.
"Like what?" She muttered slightly, removing one hand from the slight death grip on her books to pull down her shirt.
"Anything, age, former school, hobbies, favorite movie! Just don't take a day!" The teacher responded, removing his hand from her shoulder and taking a seat at the desk, sipping his coffee slightly, and eyes still focused on the teen.
"Well…" She began, moving her free hand through the air in a few wild gestures, "My name is Megan, and I am a nice shark not a mindless eating machine, if I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends. Not food."
This earned a few laughs from the class, and also a few whispers of 'I don't get it'. Elphaba was a little shocked that she too caught herself smiling.
"Uh, I am fifteen, I like to read, write, draw, sing, act, and play my piano."
An artsy one? Hm, haven't had an artsy type student for a long time. Elphaba thought to herself, placing her head in her hands, watching the girl with her usual expression.
"I have way too many favorite books and movies to name, if I did try to name them you would all be here for hours. Um, I am a cat lover and I love to run…" Megan paused, crinkling her brow, and pretending to wipe a couple of fake tears from her eyes, "I'm sorry I'm thinking about cats."
This earned even more laughter from the class, causing Megan to beam, "And that's about it!"
Mr. Reza stood up from his seat, chuckling slightly, "It seems that we have a comedian in our midst! Sit anywhere you like, sweetheart!" Elphaba watched for a second as the blonde teen thanked the teacher, picked up her bag and began to walk down the middle of the desks before turning and pulling out her own text book, but an unexpected sound caused her actions to come to a crashing halt. Her head snapped up to see the hazel eyed new girl sitting down in the seat next to her.
Why is she sitting here? Is she color blind? There are plenty of other seats in the room! The green girl's mind was racing for an answer. No one ever sat next to her, no one even sat within a few feet of her.
Something clicked in Elphaba's mind. She was staring, that girl-Megan- was staring at her that must be the only reason she was sitting there, to gawk at the green freak.
"What?" Elphaba snapped, clearly irritated at the girl's staring. To her disappointment, Megan merely smiled and held out her hand.
"Hi, the names Megan!" She greeted, her smile highlighting the blush that she had applied to her cheeks that morning.
"I know what your name is." Came Elphaba's reply, ignoring the hand that was held out.
Megan knit her eyebrows in confusion, "You do?" She awkwardly withdrew her hand, placing it in her lap dejectedly, "Oh yeah! I said it in front of the class!" Megan gave a slight laugh, "Sometimes I think I suffer from short term memory loss!"
Elphaba just continued to stare, confusion leaking onto her face, at Megan's friendly attitude.
"What?" Megan asked, noticing her desk mate's expression "Is that zit on my forehead showing? I thought I covered t up pretty well…"
"Why are you sitting here?" The green girl asked plainly, not even bothering to introduce herself.
"What do you mean why am I sitting here? You were sitting by yourself so I thought you could use a friend!" Another large smile weaved across the new girl's face as she looked slightly back towards the teacher's desk, glad that he had just announced that today was going to be a free day and the students could do as they pleased for the next hour.
"You don't think I'm strange? Disgusting? And artichoke? If the word your looking to describe me isn't here, I've got plenty more." Elphaba snapped, closing her text book with a slight slam and pulling out the book she had been reading prior to class.
"You're green." Megan pointed out bluntly, lifting a finger in her direction.
"Yes. Which makes all the more reason for you to most likely want to sit somewhere else." Elphaba pushed her black rimmed glasses slightly up on her nose, before fixing her eyes on the book before her.
"Whoa! Slow down, I didn't say anything about sitting somewhere else!" Megan retorted, pulling out her own book and thrusting it down on the table, "Its not my fault that you don't know how to accept a friend request! I thought facebook was suppose to teach you that friend requests were nice! You know what! I'm just going to stay right here until you stop thinking that I am judging you because of what you look like, because personally, I think you look pretty awesome, and that your skin is cool, but I guess that you do-"
"Wait." Elphaba cut her off suddenly, holding up a green hand in front of the blonde's face, "You like my skin? What where you, dropped on your head as a child?"
"Well, if your parents taking you on It's a Small World two weeks after you were born count as being dropped on your head, then yes, yes I was." She chirped, pulling her hands away from her lap and pushing some of her curled, blonde hair behind her ears.
Elphaba was slightly stunned by the girl's actions. This was all happening way to fast.
First, the new girl sat next to her.
Second, she told her she actually liked her green skin.
And now, third, she acted like she was trying to make a casual conversation with her.
The green girl could simply stare at her, eyes wide, finger still marking the place in her book. Megan must have taken notice of her desk mate's shocked expression.
"I'm taking it that you're not used to friendly people?" The blonde ventured, fingering the crisp pages of her own book gingerly.
"Not entirely…" Elphaba answered truthfully, playing nervously with a stray pencil on the desk's black surface, her eyes wondering to the clock mounted on the white wall, to the desk surface, to the book, then back on Megan's surprising apologetic expression.
"Well, too bad, you're stuck with a chatter box!" The girl was beaming again, quickly pointing her own piano fingers at herself, "What's your favorite book?"
"Uh," Elphaba trailed off, a little lost for words, but soon regained her composure and gave the girl an answer, "Personally, I enjoy the Harry Potter series, I find it rather-!"
"Oh my gosh! No way?" Megan nearly screamed, cutting the green girl off mid sentence. In a flash, the book that she was fingering before was slid in front of Elphaba's face, her eyes quickly scanning the title Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. "This is my second time reading the series through! I can't wait for the last movie! I am probably going to be bawling my eyes out! I get really emotional at movies! Which book is your favorite and which movie is your favorite?"
The green teen could just blink at Megan's sudden outburst, before regaining her composure and answering the presented question as calmly as she could, "Its hard for me to pick a favorite book, I love them all, but if I did have to narrow it down…The first one, it was the beginning of it all." Elphaba paused, closing her own book in realization that there was no way she could read around this girl, "As for favorite movie, there is no easy way to put this but," She inhaled a sharp breath, almost fearing hyper Megan's reaction, "I haven't seen them."
"What?" Megan gasped, covering her mouth for a moment, and quickly pulling the book back to her end of the table, "How could you not? Oh my gosh, you are so coming over and watching them!"
Elphaba gave a slightly amused smile at the blonde's reaction, "That does sound-! Wait! Did you just invite me over?"
No one had ever invited Elphaba over before, or invited her to anything for that matter. Almost all the people in the school wanted nothing to do with her, except for the two fellow outcast boys whom she usually sat at a lunch table with, but they never said anything to one another. One would always be tinkering with some sort of invention, the other would be listening to his iPod whilst scribbling out melodies of music every once in a while when he found inspiration, and Elphaba would either practice magic or just be simply reading.
"I sure did! Well, it wouldn't be today, of course, because we do need to get to know each other first! But yeah, you're invited! My parents would be glad to know I'm making new friends at school!" She chirped, toying with a couple of feathers in her hair.
Yeah, making new friends with the outcast. Elphaba almost added, but decided against it.
A slight silence fell over the table.
"What's your next class?" Elphaba asked, not partiality enjoying the quite.
"Uh, Lit. with Mrs. Foy." Megan read from the white paper of the schedueal she pulled from her jean pocket, "Do you know where it is?"
"I do, ironically enough, its my next class." The green teen muttered, holding her hand out towards the fifteen year old next to her, "Let me see you schedueal."
The blonde handed her the paper, allowing a few moments for her brown eyes to scan the printed letters.
"Wow, I am starting to feel like you are stalking me, we have every class together." Elphaba said, a little surprised, as she handed the paper back to its owner.
"At least I'll have someone to show me around!" Megan called excitedly, "I tend to get lost easily!"
Suddenly, the sharp sound of the ending bell rang through the class room.
Students stood to bundle together their various items. Megan was currently placing the Harry Potter book gingerly into her light blue back pack as if it were made of glass, while Elphaba was doing the same with her various books.
"Oh!" Megan suddenly called, looking up at Elphaba as she threw her bag over her shoulder, "Do you mind if I sit with you at lunch? I don't really know anyone and…"
"Sure," Elphaba mumbled, "But I do warn you, the people I sit with, me also, are a quite bunch."
"I bet I can change that!" The blonde chirped with a smile, clapping her hands together in glee, "Oh! And I never caught your name!"
Megan skipped after Elphaba on her way out the door, proceeding to follow along the girl's side as they walked down the hallway, earning many curious and disgusted stares.
"Its Elphaba." Came the half hearted reply.
"Elphaba…" the girl tried out the name slowly, "I like it! Mind if I call ya Elphie?"
The green girl shot her a mortified look, "It's a little…perky"
"Yeah, but it fits! Plus when I say long names and stuff I tend to slip up a lot!" Megan confessed, pulling at her back pack straps.
"Alright…" Elphaba-now Elphie- groaned in annoyance, sending a sideways glance at the girl skipping along beside her.
"Did you have coffee this morning, or a Monster even?" The green teen asked cautiously, watching as Megan jumped up and down, her curls bouncing wildly, as she hummed a tune that had no name.
"Yeah! I had coffee with three GIANT spoonfuls of sugar!" She practically screamed, clutching onto Elphaba's arm for a moment, causing the sixteen year old to flinch slightly.
She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, right underneath her glasses, "That explains a lot."
"What ever you say, Elphie!"