Her roommate was sitting on her bed with a book in her lap when she returned, as always. Galinda was so accustomed to ignoring the green bookworm she lived with that it took her a moment to realize that Elphaba wasn't only reading today. Maybe it was because the stuff she was working with so closely matched the tone of her skin. Galinda couldn't help it, but she was intrigued. Her roommate was knitting-- her long, thin green fingers deftly working a soft, fine, blue-green yarn over a pair of plain wooden needles. Galinda was actually a little impressed-- Elphaba wasn't looking at her work at all, she was still reading, and her hands simply seemed to be functioning on their own. She was working out a delicate, lacy pattern that looked like vines twisting upward of their own accord.
Galinda set her things down on her bed and went to her vanity, started brushing out her curls. Looking in the mirror, she could see Elphaba reflected back at her. The green girl had never acknowledged her roommate's arrival.
The blonde didn't last long before her bottles of makeup and stacks of jewelry boxes... her hair didn't really need much work, anyway. She wanted to know what that dratted green girl was doing. Finally she could stand it no longer. "What on earth are you making, Miss Elphaba?"
Elphaba dragged her eyes away from her book as though returning from somewhere far away. "Beg pardon?"
"You're not even looking at your hands. What are you making with that stuff?"
Elphaba watched her warily. "Nothing in particular."
"Oh come, Miss Elphaba, you must have a plan of some sort. It looks as though it's second nature to you." The green girl didn't respond.
Galinda sighed. Her roomie was just so difficult sometimes. Though, she mused, she generally didn't give the other girl any reason to play nice with her. Maybe she ought to try harder. She reached out and fingered the bits of yarn still wound into a ball at Elphaba's side. "Sweet Oz, Miss Elphaba, it's so fine... what is it?"
Elphaba, eyes never leaving her book, said, "It's Munchkinland-spun wool. And since it appears that you're not giving up, it'll be a scarf when it's finished. Nothing special."
"It's beautiful," Galinda said softly. Elphaba didn't respond, but to Galinda, she seemed to soften a little. Galinda might have pursued the discussion longer, but a knock at the door and Miss Pfannee's invitation to lunch by the canal called her away, and she left the green girl sitting on her bed, still reading and knitting as though nothing had interrupted her at all.
A few days later, Galinda arrived back at her room after class to find a package wrapped in brown paper sitting on her pillow. Elphaba was nowhere in sight. Puzzled, Galinda picked up the package and opened it. A long, soft, lightweight scarf of blue-green, beautifully worked with a vine pattern, folded softly into her hands, along with a note scratched onto a scrap of paper. "Something proclaimed beautiful by someone beautiful, and now for someone beautiful. I hope that green doesn't clash too terribly with blonde." It was signed with an "E." Galinda smiled, wrapped the scarf about her neck, and set off to look for her roommate.