"Hey!"
Elphaba Thropp looked up from the book she was so caught up in. The hustle and bustle of students around her nearly knocked the book clean out of her hands. She readjusted her glasses and swept her eyes around the commotion. She knew the voice that called was for her, Because it called to her every day now.
"Hey!" She heard it again, and her brown eyes, soft in comparison to her sharp facial features, rested on a bumbling boy with the brown satchel bag. Fiyero. He was the lover of Elphaba's best and only friend and the prince of Vilikin. For the past week, he ran up to her in the hallways. He was always blushing and out of breath too, which Elphaba supposed was because he ran over to her so urgently, like they were children who had gone a whole day without playing with each other.
"Elphaba," he said upon greeting her, and without rhyme or reason, slid the books out of her arms into his own. He walked beside her, slowing down so they had matching paces.
"I got my schedule switched," he told her, flashing her a smile. "We have Dillamond together now."
Elphaba didn't know what to say, nor how to say it. Should she demand her books back or acknowledge his schedule change? And the voice in the back of her head told her that just maybe he switched classes for her.
No, impossible. He was just being nice. And his kindness wasn't something to be wary of but something to enjoy. She loved his company, though she would never admit it, and gave him a small smile in return.
"What made you want to switch?" She asked him.
He blushed again. Elphaba wanted to feel his forehead to check for a temperature, but fought against it, thinking it was only her motherly instincts normally reserved for Nessarose.
"I just don't have any friends in his class on Friday so I thought Monday seemed like a better time." The prince said, rather quietly. "I like being close to those who are close to me."
Elphaba nodded, but inside she felt butterflies line her stomach.
"I enjoy it too," she said, but to herself she thought of all the times she was ridiculed by other people. She normally hated others. Especially when they opened their mouths.
"Can I sit beside you?" Fiyero asked, hope in every part of his eyes.
"I usually sit in the back," Elphaba answered, "so you may not want to."
Fiyero's eyebrows rose, and to Elphaba's surprise and smothered delight, he winked at her.
Boldly. Flirtatiously.
"The back seats are usually the best." He grinned.
Elphaba stopped walking, causing a student to crash into her back. The green girl almost didn't notice the obscenities spat at her as the prince looked down, and without rhyme or reason, intertwined his hand in hers.
Elphaba felt as if she swallowed a golf ball.
"Glinda…" She trailed off as Fiyero tugged her closer to him. He still held her books in his other arm and walked her to the classroom door.
"Glinda will be angry," She tried again, as they took the seats in the back. She hadn't noticed how sweaty her hand had gotten.
"She'll understand," Fiyero said, placing a hand on her knee and staring deeply into her eyes. "She has to. She needs to."
And Elphaba looked deep into his eyes in return, and then understood that he meant Glinda, her best and only friend, would have and need to understand for a long time. Suddenly everything known to Elphaba, from her past to her home to the school to the metal fold up chairs where she and Fiyero sat, never made any more sense to her in her life. She knew she would love him back for a long time, maybe even longer than her loved her, and didn't hesitate when his lips descended towards hers.