"Miss Elphaba."
No response came from the girl burrowed in her own bedsheets. Her long, thin fingers crinkled the musty pages of a book in anticipation.
"Miss Elphaba, if you would please."
"Please what?"
She spoke, without looking up from the literature sprawled before her.
"It appears to be very late in the evening... And I am tired."
"Go to sleep then. It isn't all that hard, Miss Galinda."
The blonde pursed her lips.
"Yes, well, it wouldn't be all that hard if you didn't have that light of yours turned on."
Galinda waited.
"Would you mind, turning it off? I don't know it seems we should both retire-"
"Now if I turned my light off I wouldn't be able to see the words now would I Miss Galinda. I'd strain my eyes."
"Yes, well-"
"If the light is really bothering you, why not turn the other way when you sleep?"
She hadn't considered this... Yet she wouldn't submit to the green girl's sourness.
"Wouldn't it be best we both turned in for the night? We have classes tomorrow-"
"I don't sleep, Miss Galinda."
"You don't... Sleep?"
"I am rarely tired at this hour. Therefore I don't sleep, I read."
"Well there's a shocker..."
Yet Elphaba was too engrossed in her book to hear her. This made Galinda irritated oddly enough.
"What even are you reading?"
She spat, somewhat. No response. The blonde was growing frustrated now.
"Madame Morrible wouldn't approve of this!"
"Oh Miss Galinda, I highly doubt that."
"You ugly green nuisance..."
Elphaba looked up, for the first time this evening Galinda noticed. She carefully marked her page and shut the book, then set it aside her amongst the blankets. Without breaking gaze with the blonde socialite, she managed to straighten her posture and lean in more.
"This just got interesting."
"No... No I didn't mean that I'm just tired that's all... If you would just shut that stupid light I'd never had said it-"
"That is besides the point Miss Galinda. You still said what you said. And I will admit, it has caught my attention."
"What has?"
"That I am an ugly nuisance. If anything, you got it all wrong."
"Ex-excuse me?"
"Yes, well, you see, I am not the one calling other people out by their skin tone. Nor am I the one to whine and complain about a light fixture-"
"Do you mean-"
"You're interrupting."
"Sorry... Continue..."
Elphaba took a deep breath and then forged on.
"Nor am I the one to interrupt those speaking, nor am I the one to laugh at those lower than me, nor am I the one to obtain blonde hair."
"Miss Elphaba... Are you implying, I'm an ugly nuisance?"
"Well no. Not directly at least. Because that would be mean. No, I'm not saying it. But I'm not denying such a thing either."
She gave a slight nod and then picked up the book once more, flipping to the appropriate page. Yet before she could pick up on where she left-
"I'm UGLY?!"
"Miss Galinda-"
"I can't be ugly! Do you see this face?!"
"Yes, very lovely. Like the sun-"
"EXACTLY. So I can't be ugly then! What are you implying then Miss Elphaba?!"
She said it like something nasty had just entered the room.
"Well there's also this ugliness on the inside, which you seem to obtain."
The green schoolgirl said, without looking up. She flipped the page and then pressed on.
"The way you said 'Miss Elphaba' sounded like you smelled something dead. That isn't very pretty."
"I don't understand... Can you explain it to me?"
"What? Explain what?"
"Explain... Ugliness on the inside?"
Galinda had seemed to calm down somewhat, so Elphaba decided to give in to a long conversation. She set the book down once again, this time for good, and sat up to face the blonde.
"You might be, beautiful, but you don't act, beautiful. Let that sink in."
"I don't understand what you're talking about-"
"What I'm talking about is, you act as if others are somehow below you, like they don't matter, like their opinions don't matter. And it's rude, and selfish, and ugly."
"Do... Do people notice this?"
"Oh yes, but they're too beautiful on the inside to say anything."
"You haven't said anything... Not until now."
Silence.
"No. I guess I haven't."
"That makes you beautiful. On the inside at least.
"Gee, how kind."
"And now that I think about it... On the outside as well."
They stared at one another from across the dorm room. Elphaba had kept a straight face, yet after some difficulty she began to blush- which for her, was a darker green brought up in the cheeks.
"Thank you.."
"You're welcome."
"You're starting to become less of an ugly nuisance Miss Galinda..."
"That's very kind, Miss Elphaba. But I would just like to ask you one more thing."
"Hm?"
"TURN THAT DAMN LIGHT OFF!"