A Lurlinemas Test
A/N Its Christmas eve here now. Guess most of you will be spending time with your loved ones. Merry Lurlinemas!
Fiyero stood at the door of his history classroom. He hated history. Boring teacher, boring topic. It was not surprising that he failed his latest test again.
"Mr Tiggular, not wearing your lucky white pants is not an excuse for failing your test. I am going to ask your teacher to give you a supplementary test. You know what I will do if you fail your supplementary paper," Madame Morrible had told him in her office.
He brushed off the snow from his shoulders, and stomped his feet on the floor to shake away the snow and gave a sigh before he stepped into the classroom. It was empty. He took a few more steps to ensure that he did not miss out anyone in the dim light.
"Mr Tiggular, you are fifteen minutes late," a voice behind him said.
He spun around and saw someone leaning next to the teacher's table, her coat draped across the chair.
"Miss Thropp."
Elphaba Thropp, dressed in her signature dark dress with her glasses perched on her nose, straightened herself and walked towards the double sided writing board that was at the front of the classroom. She flipped the board over with one hand.
Fiyero gasped.
No, it was not a message saying that Animals should be seen and not heard. It was not even a scrawl saying that the Winkie prince was not the prettiest boy in campus. It was a list of fifty questions, written in Elphaba's neat, print-like handwriting. Fifty history questions. It was not multiple choices either.
"Thirty minutes," she told him, a timer in her hand.
"Wait. Wait. This is not fair!" He cried out.
"What is not fair, Mr Tiggular?" It was obvious from her tone that her patience was running out.
"This is not the same as the usual classroom setting! I need paper and pencil!" he panicked.
Elphaba seemed to take that into consideration. "Paper and pencil. Mmmm, then do you want to sit on the bench as usual?"
"That will be good."
"And have Miss Pfannee by your side so that you can look down her blouse when you are bored?"
Fiyero felt the colour drained from his face.
"It… well… I…. it only happened once," he stammered.
"Oh really." Fiyero could almost see the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "It only happens once and I so happened to see it?"
"OK, OK," he quickly stood up to the writing board. "I will do it here. Here is good. Here is great."
"Good. The time starts now," she said as she pressed the button on the timer to start the timing.
Fiyero looked at the questions. There are fifty of them. This meant that he had less than one minute for each question. He knew that that was the usual format for his history test, but that did not mean that he could do it. He had never managed to complete all fifty questions in thirty minutes.
You can do it, he told himself, as he started to answer the questions.
Some were easy, some were tough. Some were tricky, and some, Oz, he did not even understand what it was asking. Using a chalk, he wrote down the answers for those that he knew, and skipped those that he had no idea how to answer. He could hear the almost inaudible tick as the second hand moved across the face of the timer. The only other thing he could hear was the pounding of his heart. Maybe he would have a heart attack. Oz, and he had a date for the Lurlinemas party tonight. He did not want to die before the party.
"Time's up," the voice said behind him. Fiyero froze, his hand still in mid-air, as he sneaked a glance to his right. The last row, all five questions, remained unanswered. Added that to the few that he had skipped, and it could mean maybe ten questions unanswered.
Elphaba walked up to the writing board to mark the answers. As she walked past Fiyero, he felt her hand brushed against his hips from behind. Did she realise what she just did? Fiyero looked at her as she started to mark the answers, her face intent. Most probably not.
Fiyero studied her as she marked the questions. She had a sharp nose, high cheekbones and a sharp chin. That would have given her a stern look. But those sharp features were complemented by a pair of large expressive brown eyes (that had not been looking at him kindly since he had entered the room) and a pair of greyish-red lips that he knew could break into a wide, captivating smile. Her raven black hair was tied loosely into a braid.
When she was done marking the answers, she moved back to her original position by the teacher's table.
Elphaba gave a sigh and Fiyero saw her dropped her shoulders as she dropped her façade. She placed her hand that was holding onto the chalk palms down on the table.
"Twenty eight questions, Fiyero. You only got twenty-eight correct. " Her voice was still stern, but he could hear the disappointment in her voice. "This is just a mock test. How are you going to score in the supplementary test next week? This is the last paper, the last chance that you have to pull up your overall grades. Do you know that Madame Morrible will not hesitate to make you repeat this module if you failed?"
Fiyero might dislike history, but one thing he really hated was the look in a girl's eyes when she felt that she was being let down by him. And Elphaba was giving him that look. She sighed again.
"Why do I even bother?" she asked herself.
Fiyero went to her.
"At least I passed."
"I want you to score, Yero. To get more than a borderline overall pass."
"Wait, maybe there is one element missing," he said as he put his hand over hers.
She raised her eyebrows.
"Usually in class there will be noise. Distraction. It was so quiet just now." He looked into her eyes.
"I wanted you to concentrate." Her eyes, so beautiful even through the glasses, looking back at him.
"I think I will concentrate better if there is a little distraction."
"Do you want me to call in Miss Pfannee?" she suggested with slight grin.
"I can think of a better distraction," Fiyero said as he took off her glasses and placed his hand at the back of her neck. He leaned in and kissed her.
"I don't think that's a good idea," she said as she responded to his kisses.
"Try me," he whispered into her ear and then kissed her behind her ear.
"What is the size of the troop when the Gale Force was first formed?"
"Two hundred," came the answer as his lips moved down her neck.
"In which year of the Wizard's reign did he start building the Yellow Brick Road in Quadling?"
"Tenth year," he started kissing her jaw.
"Name me three items the Vinkuns traded in the Emerald City in their first year."
"Silk, Preserved meat and corn." Elphaba could feel his fingers reaching for the buttons of her blouse.
"Not bad," she commented.
"I told you I performed well under pressure," he told her as she slid her hands down his back and press his body against hers, feeling his heat.
"Under pleasure, you mean," Elphaba tittered, as she kissed him and pushed his lips apart.
Fiyero lifted her onto the table and moved between her legs.
"How many times was the tax increased for imports and exports in Oz in the past three years?" Elphaba wrapped her legs around him.
"Five times. Overall increase was by two hundred and fifty percent." He finished unbuttoning her blouse and pulled one side down together with the strap of her camisole before he kissed her on her lips again.
"Who was the first mayor of Gillikin and what was his occupation?"
"Tosh. He was a textile merchant." He kissed her neck again as his hand strayed to her breast, his eyes closed. Oz, he loved the smoothness of her skin.
"What is Pfannee's bust size?"
"That's easy. It's 36DD."
His eyes popped open.
Uh-no.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Galinda and Boq were seated on a bench outside the dorm, holding hands. The snow had just stopped, and the temperate was still low enough that it did not melt. It rarely snowed in Shiz, so the snow was a pleasant surprise to everyone. A Lurliemas gift.
Galinda looked at her watch. It was a pink heart-shape watch with fabric flowers on the strap. It was a birthday present from Boq and she loved it, both for his good taste and also for sentimental reasons – it was his first birthday present to her after they had gotten together.
And tomorrow would be their first Lurlinemas. There would be a party tonight, and Galinda had gotten a copy of the party setup from Avaric who was in charge of decorations. She memorise that map by heart so that she would know where every mistletoe was in the party – she was not going to miss any single one of them. She smiled at that thought.
Elphaba and Fiyero would be going too. It would be Elphaba's first Lurlinemas party ever, and Galinda had promised Fiyero that she would turned his girlfriend into the stunner that she knew she really was.
"Are they coming back soon?" Boq asked.
"Soon, Biq sweetie," she told him. "Elphie said she was going to give Fiyero a mock history test to prep him for the supplementary paper. I told her to be back by three o'clock so that I have four hours to prepare. She still has twenty minutes to spare."
Boq smiled at her. He loved it when she called him Biq (big) sweetie.
They continued to sit there, enjoying each other's company as they swung their legs in harmony.
"There she is!" Galinda shouted as she saw Elphaba in the distance. She waved to her green roommate, but Elphaba did not acknowledge the blonde. And it was then that Galinda noticed that she was walking abit too fast, as if she was angrily stomping away from someone. She also noticed that Elphaba was not wearing her coat.
Galinda looked behind Elphaba and saw Fiyero trying to catch up with Elphaba. He was wearing his coat and carrying Elphaba's coat and held her glasses in his hand.
"Fae honey, please stop!" She heard him say from the distance.
Elphaba stopped, turned back and glared at him before she continued.
"Elphaba, I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry. I don't have the figure. I just plucked it from thin air. Can you please wait for me?"
She didn't.
As Galinda watched, Fiyero finally caught up with his girlfriend.
"Put on your coat, Fae. You are going to catch a cold. Please, honey."
She ignored him.
"Look. I told you I am sorry. I love you,Fae."
Elphaba turned to him. "Like real!" she said before she stomped off again.
"Fae. Of course I do! Can you please just listen to me?" Elphaba stomped past Galinda and Boq, ignoring her best friend.
"Fae please. Will you stop being angry? What do you want me to do before you will stop being angry?" Fiyero pleaded.
Galinda and Boq watched as the two disappeared into the dormitory, Fiyero still begging for her forgiveness.
After a while, they heard a sound of a door slammed from somewhere within the corridors of the dorm. And the tree next to them dropped the last leaf that it was trying so hard to retain.
Boq let out a pent up breath.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Galinda shrugged. "Maybe he failed the mock test?"
Boq thought for a while. "Wow. It must be tough dating the smartest girl in Shiz. So are you going in now?"
Galinda shook her head. "Nah, I think I will stay here for a while longer. I am not going to risk my life by going in right now."
They held hands again and continued to swing their legs in the winter wonderland.
A/N Like it? Please review! :)