A/N: I wrote this for a friend of mine when she was struggling with some things in her life. Her name is Renee; she's the one who inspired this and who gave me permission to post it. She's my Galinda and I hope to be her Elphaba when she needs me. The note at the end was for her. Please enjoy.
For every ten footsteps Elphaba took away from the library, a roll of thunder seemed to shatter the darkening sky above Shiz. A storm was fast approaching, and the pitter-patter of rain against skin had never been one of the green girl's favorite feelings. She hated the sensation of burning her flesh radiated when the water struck her. It singed away the spinach color that was true, but the drops left deep purple blisters where they struck, causing her already abnormal skin to take on an even less pleasing hue. Yes, be caught alone in the rain was one, if not the only, fear Elphaba possessed.
Her feet landed with heavy pounds against the sidewalks that quickened as the clouds grew darker. Crage Hall was hidden amid the tall trees of the Campus, but Elphaba could just now make out the peak of the building, and the window where her room was located. Oddly enough, even though Galinda ought to have been there by now, the room looked to be awfully still, even from as far away as Elphaba was. Not even the curtains twitched.
Another clap of thunder turned the green girl's walk into a run. Her thin bony legs started to race in a cycle of long navy fabric and green flesh while her heavy satchel pounded against her hip, smacking against the bones of her pelvis and delaying her speed.
Lucky enough, though, she reached Crage Hall just as the first pellets of rain began to drop from the clouds. She threw herself through the front doors of the dormitory fast enough to only receive a single scorching blister on the top of her left hand. The skin sizzled and hissed, turning from an emerald green to a peculiar deep blue. The feeling caused Elphaba to curse rather loudly as she turned and ran hastily to her room. Even though the burn was small, it stung like hell and only her oils would soothe it.
Clutching her blistered hand, she knocked on the door of her room, hoping Galinda would be inside to answer.
"Galinda?" The green girl called through the wood, "Galinda, open the door."
Even though Elphaba was convinced her bubbly blonde roommate was inside, there was no response and the door remained shut.
"Galinda, I know you wouldn't be caught dead in a storm like this. Open the door. I know you're in there."
Again, there was no response.
Elphaba sighed loudly and began fishing in her pocket for the room key while the stinging sensation ate away at the rest of the feeling in her hand. Lurline, how she hated the rain.
The lock on the door clicked and the green girl budged the door open with her shoulder. The sight that greeted her inside allowed her to forget the current pain in her hand.
Galinda Upland was no more than a lump under her frivolous pink blankets; covered from head to toe without even so much as a blonde curl poking out from underneath the fabric. To say it was actually her head lying on the pillows would be a stretch at this point.
"Galinda." Elphaba said plainly. "What exactly are you doing under there?"
"Hiding." The blonde squeaked from underneath her shelter.
"From what? Dare I ask?" The green girl said as she set her satchel down beside her bed.
Glinda mumbled something from beneath the sheets that did not even vaguely resemble any form of a language.
"From what?" Elphaba asked again.
"The thunder!" She cried as another rolling cloud grumbled and spat. Elphaba shuddered at the noise but then resumed her sarcastic position.
"You, Galinda Arduenna Upland, are frightened by thunder?" Elphaba said, stifling a cackle that was rising in the back of her throat.
"It's not funny!" Galinda shrieked, yet it was muffled and still highly amusing. "It's awful! It even shakes the building!"
Elphaba smirked to herself as she sat down on her bed and pulled a novel from her satchel, having completely forgotten about her blistering hand. The emerald skinned woman was much more interested in tormenting her roommate.
"This is delightful. Truly, it is."
"Oh! You mean green thing!" Galinda cried. For the moments after that she was silently balled up beneath her sheets quivering, until another clap of thunder shook the sky.
"Elphie!" She screamed. The high pitched noise shocked the green girl out of the book she had begun to read and caused a wave of irritation to fly through her like a knife.
"What?" Elphaba spat.
"Please come and sit with me!"
The request was sudden and said in a voice filled with panic. It stunned Elphaba to the point of silence for several seconds.
"Elphie!" Galinda whined again. "Please! Please come and sit with me!"
"Sit with you?" Was all Elphaba could say.
"Yes!" Galinda popped her mess of blonde curls out from under the blankets near the foot of her bed, proving it was her feet resting on the pillow. She looked expectantly at her emerald roommate until the sky flashed with lighting and she buried her face back into her mattress.
"So you want me to just sit on your bed and do what, exactly?"
"Wait out the storm with me! Talk until the thunder stops! Please Elphie!"
"Galinda, this is ridiculous. You're a grown woman, you can-"
"Elphie! Please! Please, please, please!" The blonde whimpered, shooting a puppy-dog esc pout across the room. "I won't be able to sleep tonight with this storm unless you come and sit with me!"
Elphaba, not able to take anymore of her roommate's high-pitched pleas, gave in with an irk filled sigh, stood up, and plopped down onto the edge of Galinda's bed. The girl immediately scuttled over to her green friend and settled her own blonde head into Elphaba's navy skirted lap.
"Galinda-" Elphaba began to protest at the motion, but upon witnessing the tension leaving Galinda's small body, she held her tongue and uncomfortably set her right hand on the side of Galinda's face, pushing the girl's messy curls away from her eyes.
Another few moments passed without a word being exchanged between the two, until Galinda's soft voice questioned,
"Elphie, are you in love with anyone?"
"Excuse me?" The green girl stuttered. Her regular thoughts became shattered as the question radiated through her skull and into her veins.
"Are you in love with anyone? At this school?"
"Galinda, that question is completely-"
"Oh, you are! I can hear it in your voice!" The perky blonde turned onto her back to look up at Elphaba's stunned face, ignoring the grumble of the sky above.
"Galinda-"
"Who is it? No! Wait! Don't tell me! I want to guess!"
"Miss Upland, please-"
"No! I don't want to guess! I don't want to know yet! I'll guess later! I want to hear about it first! Then I'll guess! How in love are you? How long have you loved him? Tell me! It'll be a little quiz!"
"Galinda!" Elphaba half screamed. Her outburst hushed the Gilliken girl and allowed Elphaba to clear her mind and reorganize her thoughts.
"No." She said plainly. "I don't think I have ever felt love for anyone. Love is a different emotion for me that I can honestly say I have never-"
"Elphie! Don't lie! There's someone! I can tell! I know things like this! Oh, let's test it, just to be sure, please?"
"I thought you just wanted me to sit with you until the storm ended. You said nothing about…quizzing me on my non-existent love life!" Elphaba spat defensively. She wasn't sure if peculiar questions like this were common things to ask among friends or if Galinda had ulterior motives, whatever the hell those may be. But the blonde's words had caught her off guard and left her feeling awkward
"You agreed to talk to me! Please, Elphie, please? Girls always talk about these things!"
"I feel like this hardly qualifies as talking, Miss Galinda; it fits more along the lines of involuntary interrogation. I will not be objected to-"
An unusually loud burst of thundered shattered the sky again, making Elphaba flinch only slightly, but Galinda shrieked and flipped over, burying her face in the skirt of Elphaba's frock. A little tinge of guilt pricked at Elphaba's chest, so with a sigh, she gave in.
"Fine. Fine, fine. I will humor you in your pathetic attempts to prove something that cannot be proven. Begin."
Galinda flopped over again onto her back with a surprisingly devilish grin plastered onto her face.
"How often do you think about him? Or her? Oh my Oz, Elphie, is it a girl?"
"Galinda!" Elphaba snapped, "Why would you even-"
"My mistake! My mind got side tracked!"
"How could you assume-"
"On a scale of one to ten," Galinda raised her voice over her roommate's rant, "how often do you think about him?"
Elphaba paused momentarily to think.
"7.725." She said plainly.
"Elphie you know I'm not good with big numbers." The little blonde huffed as she pulled herself up out of Elphaba's lap and sat cross-legged on her bed.
"Then how does 2 sound?" The green girl said, stifling a laugh. Galinda shot the best glare she could manage, which wasn't saying much, at her emerald skinned roommate.
"Elphie, that's not love!"
"Then you have the answer to your question."
"No! It's not that simple! Let's see….do you ever find yourself staring and smiling at him?"
"Maybe?" Elphaba replied, confused, "It's not like I would catalog every moment that I saw him, and besides, I can't waste time staring at a man; I'm usually trying to avoid being hit by carriages." She rolled her eyes at the memory of her first meeting with the Prince of the Vinkus.
"Could you imagine a life with him?" Galinda sighed, romantic images no doubt dancing about her mind; images of the idiot Winkie no less.
"Absolutely not."
Don't you just sound charming, Elphaba Thropp. A heartless witch if there ever was one.
"Do you smile when you think about him?"
"On occasion."
Whose name are you putting to these questions? The green girl mentally asked herself. You just told Galinda that you didn't love anyone, is that true?
"Does your heart beat fast and do you get butterflies when you think about him?"
"Miss Galinda, I hardly think that the pitiful stone in my chest counts as a heart."
"Elphie, answer me!"
"Only sometimes." The green girl sighed, tired of this seemingly endless interrogation.
"Do you want to touch him when you see him?"
Elphaba's face contorted to a place bordering between absolute disgust and complete rage.
"Not in that way!" Galinda squealed, blushing heavily, "Do you just want to hug him or hold his hand?"
"Not always. I prefer to keep a good distance between myself and other people, seeing as if other people like to do the same."
Galinda huffed a little at her roommate's stubbornness while she pondered another question.
"Do you feel calmed by his smell?"
"Excuse me?" Elphaba spat, "No! What kind of question is that?"
"Fiyero has this kind of smell to him!" Galinda replied with a grin creeping across her face. She snuggled one of her pillows as she gushed, "I love it….it's a mix between that tall grass in the Great Kells-"
"And the body's perspiration that is released when one is surrounded by members of the opposite sex, or is it just when a male is surrounded by females?"
"Elphie!" Galinda shrieked, her cheeks turning a thick shade of red under her makeup. She picked up her pillow and whacked Elphaba upside the head. The emerald skinned woman sighed as the feather filled blow knocked her glasses off her face and into her lap. She reached down to retrieve them just as Galinda collapsed with a sigh back onto her. Her petite body landed square on Elphaba's hand; on her left hand, to be exact.
"I give up!" The little blonde moaned while her roommate had her eyes squeezed together tightly as to suppress the irritation Galinda was causing to the open blister.
"You don't love this boy, Elphie! You just have…infection for him!"
"Affection, Galinda," Elphaba managed through clenched teeth, "not infection."
"Didn't I say that? Oh, never mind! You have affection for him, but you don't love him!"
"I told you that half an hour ago, Miss Galinda. Now, please, if you would be so kind as to get off-"
"You said you didn't know!" Galinda protested.
"I said love was a different emotion for me," Elphaba retorted, her voice rising, "now please, my hand-"
"But that doesn't mean you've never-"
"Galinda! Get off of me!"
With a jerk, Elphaba freed her hand from under the blonde. The rough sparkles on the pink fabric of her roommate's dress had scratched the skin around her burn, and now the entire area was an unnatural purple.
Elphaba's sudden outburst had shocked Galinda off of her lap and back onto the bed, leaving her more confused than she usually was.
"You little idiot!" The green girl hissed, stalking towards the bathroom, "You've irritated the skin even more!"
"Oh Elphie, you're hurt! Why didn't you say something? You should have-"
"I would have said something if you hadn't been pestering me with that stupid quiz about my perpetual nonexistent love life! Why can't you get it through that thick blonde head of yours that I don't love anyone and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever love me?"
Elphaba's scream radiated throughout the small dorm room for several seconds before dying down. The green girl's words left Galinda completely silent with a look of hurt plastered across her features.
Catching her breath, Elphaba turned on her heel and disappeared into the bathroom, muttering,
"I need my oils."
She slammed the door and scrambled to pull the medicine cabinet open. Once she did, several of Galinda's bottles of makeup came crashing out, coating her in a dusty layer of blush and foundation.
"You ignorant girl, why can't you just get it through your brain that I'm not…interested in anyone…" The green girl muttered to herself as she undid the lid to her bottle. Instantly the small bathroom was filled with the aroma of coconuts and vanilla.
As the green girl poured the substance into her palm, another violent clap of thunder shook the foundation of Crage Hall. From the other side of the door Elphaba heard a shriek and the vicious ruffling of covers, and the thought of her roommate once again huddled under her sheets was enough to cause the girl to feel a twang of guilt.
She gently applied the oil to her burn and breathed a steady sigh of relief as the pain eased away. After wiping the excess substance onto a towel, she opened the door and walked back into her room, only to see Galinda in the exact position she had picture in her mind; head hidden under her massive comforter and curled into a tight ball in the center of the mattress.
Unsure of what to do, Elphaba walked quietly over to Galinda's bed and sat down next to the lump she defined as her roommate. For a moment, she was silent, not sure of what to say. After several seconds passed, she finally offered,
"Are you in love with anyone, Miss Galinda?"
With a happy giggle, Galinda reemerged from under the covers and snuggled back into Elphaba's lap. This time the green girl did not protest and was thankful that the blonde seemed to have accepted her poor excuse for an apology.
"Yes!" She piped, "Of course I am! I'm in love with Fiyero!"
"Really? Are you sure?" Elphaba said with a smirk, "I think we'll have to test it. How often do you think about him?"
"All the time! Constantly! Fifty out of ten!"
"Perhaps that's why you can never focus on your studies. Do you ever find yourself starring off at him and smiling?"
"Only every day!"
After her shout of joy, Galinda's face fell.
"What's the matter, my sweet?" Elphaba asked, pulling the blonde's curls away from her eyes once more, "You were so happy just a moment ago."
"I'm in love with Fiyero…but I don't think he loves me."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow at her friend and prodded for more information.
"Why would you say that? You're the most beautiful woman at Shiz, Miss Galinda. Who else could possibly compete with you for him?"
"Oh, it's not that I have competition, it's just he is so wonderful that every other girl wants him! Just last week I saw him walking ShenShen to class, and he didn't even so much as smile at me! He didn't even notice I was there!"
"Males." Elphaba said plainly. "They aren't worth your time. They're thick headed beasts without anything but primal instincts to guide their small minds. Don't convince yourself that they deserve anything from you."
Galinda stared wide eyed up at Elphaba, the green girl's ideals striking her as very foreign.
"But boys are so wonderful, Elphie! Oh, maybe you just don't understand because you've never had an interest until now!"
The words Galinda spoke could have hurt, but Elphaba brushed them off and look at the blonde with a smile.
"No, dear. Perhaps I don't."
They carried on the conversation for another full hour as the storm outside died down. The rain persisted, but the clouds lightened in color and the thunder rolled off to hardly a gurgle. The lightning had long ago disappeared into the Vinkus.
"Oh! Elphie, Elphie look!" Galinda cried out cheerfully, rolling onto her side to point at the window, "The storm has passed! Oh, I thought that dreadful thing would carry on forever!"
"Every storm passes, Miss Galinda. You just have to give it the right amount of time."
"But it was so loud and so awful!"
"That doesn't mean it won't ever end. Now, if you could please remove yourself from my lap, I do have quite a bit of studying to do before tomorrow."
Galinda complied and Elphaba rose to fetch her books.
"Elphie?" Galinda whispered as her roommate got organized.
"Yes?"
"Do you think…tomorrow, in Doctor Dillamond's class…you could talk to Fiyero for me?"
"What?" Elphaba asked, confused.
"Could you…say something to him, about ShenShen? For me, please? I won't see him all day and it's bothering me a great deal."
Elphaba rolled her eyes and sighed.
"I hope you realize that conversing with the male population is not something I excel at. Whatever I say to him will have little to no effect on your current situation."
"But it will! He must! Oh, please just try and I promise I won't ever interrupt your studying again!"
The offer was too good to pass up.
"Very well." The green girl sighed, "But don't expect any great changes thanks to me."
The following day, Elphaba found herself standing amid a field of poppies; a lion cub locked in a cage at her side and Fiyero a few steps away. What had just occurred she vowed to never share with anyone; it was wrong and completely unfathomable.
He had touched her. In the way Galinda had described it- holding her hand and gazing at her with a grin. He had touched her in a way he shouldn't have, in a way no man ever had before.
Perhaps she was being overly dramatic, but she had never felt the way she was feeling now. She tried to distract her emotions by focusing on the frightened cub Fiyero had helped her rescue.
"His heart is pounding." She whispered, "I…I didn't mean to frighten him."
"What did you mean to do?" Fiyero asked after a pause, "And…why was I the only one you didn't…do it to?"
She gazed up at him and she felt her cheeks grow hot. She began to notice his features for the first time; the way his sea blue eyes matched the enchanting diamonds that were tattooed all across his body. Or, at least, she imagined they were.
She could see the rise of his cheek bones and the curve of his chin. Unknown to her, as she examined him, the corners of her mouth drew up into a smile. Only as she was contemplating the beauty of his face, though, did she notice the long scratch stretching from his temple to just above his chin.
"You're bleeding."
"I am?" He said, not taking his eyes off of her. Was he examining her the way she had been examining him? The idea made her blush again and she desperately hoped it did not show.
"It…must have scratched you." She offered.
"Or…maybe it…scratched me…or something."
Cautiously, she reached out her hand towards his cheek, the reflection of his diamonds highlighting the unnatural pigment of her skin, and yet, making it look beautiful at the same time. Her heart picked up pace and she moved closer to him, but in a flash, he rose to his feet and backed away.
"I've got to get to safety." He sputtered out, referring to the still trembling lion.
"Of course!" Elphaba cried, rising to her feet as well. Embarrassment rushed over her like a wave from the ocean as she realized what had just happened.
"I mean…the cub! The cub…I need to-"
"Of course, of course, I'm so sorry-" She spun this way and that, trying to move out of the way of the man she had just nearly caressed.
"I need to get the cub to safety." Fiyero affirmed one more time as he lifted up the cage and nearly broke into a run.
Mind racing, Elphaba felt as if she was forgetting something. Half-heartedly, she turned on her heel and began to chase after him, but then quickly turned back.
Could you…say something to him, about ShenShen?
"Galinda!" Elphaba whispered as she turned back around and called out,
"Master Fiyero!"
But the prince was already gone, having sprinted ahead and away from her. She was not surprised that he would run so fast from her, but somewhere inside, her heart dropped as she realized in full what had just occurred.
Every thought that suddenly whizzed around her brain was of him. She couldn't forget each feature he possessed that had enchanted her heart and left her thoughts dim and unimportant. Somehow, she had fallen for him; she had fallen for a ridiculous boy that could never be hers.
Above head, clouds had congested together once again, and the low growl of thunder was starting to grace the sky. Another storm was beginning, and Elphaba had once again found herself alone in the rain.
Every storm passes, my sweet. Don't think that simply because one storm is louder than any other that it will last forever. With the strength that you poses and the people you surround yourself with, you will always be able to brave any weather, no matter how wet or cold it seems to be.
You are, and always will be, a brilliant woman with talent to quiet the storm. This is for you.
-X