Blue skies and no clouds were common in the Ozian atmosphere. Even more common were dozens of beautiful girls in long frocks flirting with handsome boys in green fields. So, looking at this very picture one afternoon, you might not notice the girl in the background, sitting against a tree. You might notice her because she wasn't wearing beautiful dresses as the other girls were. You might not notice her because she was alone, because she was reading.
Or perhaps she is unnoticeable because she blends in with the long grass around her.
Elphaba Thropp laid down her book, disturbed by the giggling coming from the nearest girl. She glared at the nitwit, who looked surprised, but soon realized whom she was disturbing and quickly scampered away, dragging her love-struck boy behind her.
Irritated, Elphaba planned to get up and go inside to read in peace, but something landed with a thump beside her. She looked up and there he was, his handsome face stretched into a smile. She could feel her annoyance brimming away, and she smiled back at him.
"Hello, Miss Elphaba." He said extravagantly, getting up and bowing low.
Elphaba sighed. "Hello Fiyero. Why aren't you with Galinda?"
Fiyero looked hurt. "Can't I spend time you my favorite green girl?" Sensing danger, he quickly added, "The heel of her shoe broke in front of some other students. She felt so embarrassed that she went inside. Care for a walk?" He held out his hand.
Suppressing a laugh, Elphaba took the hand reluctantly, ignoring jealous looks from other girls.
As the two walked, they discussed everything and anything. Elphaba would say something now and then to cause Fiyero to laugh, and often they would look at the other and smile. You'd think, watching them, that the two were blissfully and completely in love. And of course they were.
They just didn't know it yet.
Galinda hummed a happy tune as she flounced around her side of the room, once in a while asked her roommate something.
"Elphie, should I match Fiyero's hair or eyes tonight?"
"Mmm."
"Oh, no one wears brown anymore. Except maybe you!" Galinda squealed. "Like a caramel apple. I used to love them, but they are so sticky."
"Mmmhmm."
"Blue. To match his amazing eyes." She sighed blissfully and scurried to the closet, rambling to her roommate, who was trying to read." "Oh, I love to gaze-EEK!"
This snapped Elphaba out of her book, and she looked up irritably. "What?"
"My blue dress! It has a STAIN!"
Elphaba's eyes widened, and she quickly returned to her book. Let's just say that Elphaba and Galinda hadn't been friends for very long, and Galinda didn't wear blue that often.
"Oh, no! What will I do? Oh, Fiyero will be so disappointed! I can't wear brown to match his hair, I look awful in brown. How will we look together? I'll have to wear pink again, and Fiyero isn't pink! Oh, Elphaba, what will I do-?!"
"Galinda." Elphaba said, a headache beginning to form. "Fiyero's eyes aren't blue. They're green."
Freeze frame. Dresses everywhere, Galinda in a state of panic.
"Oh."
Galinda was too caught up in her own love to notice anyone else's. For she was in love with him, too. She knew it all too well.
"Boq?" came from a girl in a red dress, calling worriedly into the next room. A stiff man appeared from it, carrying a tray with tea. The woman smiled at him, genuinely, as she took the tray from him and wheeled herself to a table where she set the table down. "Thank you so much, Boq."
The man's face did not waver. "Will that be all, Madame?"
The woman's smile disappeared. "Nessa. I told you to call me Nessa."
"Yes Madame." and he excused himself from the room.
That night, as they did every night, both the handicapped woman and the trapped man cried themselves to sleep, for the people they could not love, could not let go, and could never leave.
They were both in love as well, but because of too many grudges and bad decisions, fate ended their story in a tragic way.
The loves of these people were in a complete circle, at least in the beginning. Nessa loved Boq, who loved Galinda, who loved Fiyero, who was beginning to turn around to love Elphaba, but her back was turned, too busy loving her sister, Nessa. No one had yet noticed Fiyero's turning, at least not for long. But the time came soon when Elphaba turned away from her sister and accepted her feelings for Fiyero, and this threw the circle off course. Now Glinda yearned for someone she could not have, and although two people had finally achieved their happy ending, the remaining three could never reach their understanding, and because the circle was broken, everyone suffered the consequences.
Perhaps, one day, through the straw and false smiles, tin and flying houses, and a person subject to prejudice, once all were united, peace could finally be attained.